AMERICA  FALLEN ! 


THE  SEQUEL  TO  THE  EUROPEAN  WAR 


J-BERNARDmKER 


BERKELEY 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

BEQUEST 

OF 
ANITA  D.  S.  BLAKE 


2  /^Lfc^F^u^ 

* 


AMERICA    FALLEN  ! 


AMERICA    FALLEN! 


The  Sequel  to  the  European  War 


By 

J.  BERNARD  WALKER 

EDITOR  OF  THE  SCIENTIFIC  AMERICAN 


New  York 

Dodd,   Mead  and   Company 
1915 


COPYRIGHT,  1915.  BY 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 


W3 


PREFACE 


BY  WAY  of  preface  to  the  second  edition, 
the  author  wishes  to  make  it  clear  that  "Amer 
ica  Fallen"  was  written  with  the  serious  pur 
pose  of  emphasizing  the  warnings  which  have 
been  uttered  from  year  to  year,  both  by  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  These  warnings  have  dwelt  upon  the 
insufficiency  of  our  naval  and  military  forces 
to  resist  attack  by  a  first-class  power;  and 
"America  Fallen"  was  written  to  embody 
these  facts  as  to  our  unpreparedness  in  the 
form  of  a  connected,  dramatic  narrative, 
which  would  bring  home  to  the  public  and  its 
Congress  the  urgent  peril  of  the  present  con 
ditions. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition,  the 
work  has  received  the  strong  endorsement  of 
naval  and  military  men.  From  the  many  let 
ters  received  the  two  following  have  been  se 
lected  for  publication : 

Office  of 

THE  ADMIRAL  OF  THE  NAVY 
WASHINGTON 

June  23,  1915. 
My  dear  Mr.  Walker: 

I  have  read  your  excellent  book,  "America 
Fallen"  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  but  I 
cannot  say  with  pleasure,  as  it  describes  a  state 
of  affairs  which  might  well  exist  if  our  conn- 

664 


try  is  not  prepared  to  maintain  itself  at  peace 
with  the  world. 

Sincerely  yours, 

George  Dewey. 
Mr.  J.  Bernard  Walker, 
233   Broadway, 
'New  York  City. 

Stamford,  Conn. 

June  25,    1915. 
My  dear  Mr.  Walker: 

I  have  read  your  interesting  book,  "Amer 
ica  Fallen."  Under  your  reasonable  suppo 
sition  of  a  surprise  invasion  of  our  country 
without  a  previous  declaration  of  war,  the 
military  operations  you  have  outlined  are  per* 
fectly  feasible,  and  the  outcome  might  easily 
be  as  disastrous  to  the  United  States  as  you 
have  so  graphically  pictured. 

I  hope  your  work  may  be  read  so  widely 
and  seriously  that  its  lessons,  together  with 
the  evident  lessons  of  the  day,  will  result  in 
the  adoption  of  an  intelligent  policy  looking 
toward  national  preparedness  against  war. 
Sincerely  yours, 

Matthew  E.  Hanna. 
Mr.  J.  Bernard  Walker,  Editor, 
Scientific  American, 
New  York  City. 

[Captain  Matthew  E.  Hanna,  United  States  Army,  the 
writer  of  the  above  letter,  is  the  author  of  "Tactical  Prin 
ciples  and  Problems,"  the  standard  text-book  on  the  sub 
ject  in  use  in  the  United  States  Army.] 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I   THE  PEACE  OF  GENEVA       .  3 

II   THE     COUNCIL     CHAMBER     AT 

POTSDAM IO 

III   AN       UNDEFENDED      TREASURE 

LAND 26 

IV   EMBARKATION     OF     THE     GER 
MAN  ARMY  .         .         .         .         32 
V   THE  GERMAN  FLEET  SETS  SAIL         40 
VI    THE      CABINET      MEETING      AT 

WASHINGTON     .         .         .         .         47 
VII   THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES         66 
VIII    CAPTURE    OF    NEW  YORK    HAR 
BOR  DEFENCES  ....         79 
IX   INDEMNITY   OR   BOMBARDMENT         88 
X  THE    BOMBARDMENT    OF     NEW 

YORK 101 

XI   THE     CAPITULATION     OF     NKW 

YORK 117 

XII   THE  SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON      .       124 
v 


vi         CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII  THE  CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON  134 

XIV  SEEKING  THE  GERMAN  FLEP;T    .  149 
XV   THE     BATTLE     OF    THE    CARIB 
BEAN    159 

XVI    REAPING  THE   WHIRLWIND         .  177 
XVII   THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG — 

AND  PEACE  .         .         .         .191 


AMERICA    FALLEN! 


THE  PEACE  OF  GENEVA 

THE  Treaty  of  Geneva,  which  brought  to 
a  close  the  European  War,  was  signed,  on 
March  i,  1916,  by  the  peace  plenipoten 
tiaries  of  no  less  than  thirteen  nations. 

Throughout  the  spring,  summer,  and 
winter  of  1915,  the  titanic  conflict,  en 
larged  by  the  entry  of  over  3,000,000 
troops  of  Italy  and  the  Balkan  States  into 
the  theater  of  operations,  swayed  to  and 
fro  across  the  blood-soaked  soil  of  Europe, 
with  a  ferocity  and  slaughter  which  sick 
ened  even  the  most  hardened  veterans  of 
the  war.  Weight  of  numbers  and  a  crush 
ing  superiority  in  artillery  drove  the 
armies  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  back  upon 
Budapest  and  Vienna,  held  the  redoubtable 
Von  Hindenberg  within  his  own  frontiers, 


4  AMERICA  FALLEN 

and  rolled  the  German  armies  in  France 
and  Belgium  slowly  back  to  the  Rhine  and 
the  Dutch  frontier. 

Undismayed,  and  fighting  against  heavy 
odds  with  a  magnificent  courage  and  stead 
iness,  Germany  took  up  a  seemingly  im 
pregnable  position  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Rhine  and  marshaled  her  forces  for  a 
strictly  defensive  campaign  in  1916.  Late 
in  November  of  1915,  however,  when  by 
common  consent  the  warring  hosts  on  the 
Western  battle  line  had  apparently  settled 
down  for  comparative  rest  and  recupera 
tion  during  the  winter  months  in  a  quasi- 
defensive,  similar  to  that  of  1915,  Hol 
land  suddenly  declaring  war,  entrenched 
herself  heavily  on  the  German  border,  and 
a  vast  Allied  reserve  army,  entering  Hol 
land  by  the  Belgian-Dutch  border,  and  by 
way  of  Rotterdam  and  Amsterdam,  con 
centrated  to  the  east  of  the  Rhine,  drove 
down  in  a  resistless  offensive  into  West- 


THE  PEACE  OF  GENEVA  5 

phalia,  taking  the  German  army  in  the 
right  flank  and  rear,  and  captured  the 
great  centers  of  artillery  and  ammunition 
supply  in  Essen  and  the  surrounding  dis 
tricts. 

Germany,  realizing  that,  with  the  Krupp 
and  other  factories  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  the  war  must  end  automatically,  ac 
cepted  the  friendly  offices  of  the  Swiss 
Government  and  the  peace  conference 
opened  at  Geneva. 

And  thus  it  came  about  that  there  gath 
ered  on  the  shores  of  the  placid  lake  the 
most  momentous  conclave  in  all  the  history 
of  the  world. 

Contrary  to  universal  expectation  the 
deliberations  moved  forward  with  a  swift 
ness  which,  considering  the  enormous  in 
terests  at  stake,  appeared  to  a  nervously 
apprehensive  world  simply  incredible.  And 
herein  was  seen  the  advantage,  costly 
though  it  had  been  in  blood  and  treasure, 


6  AMERICA  FALLEN 

of  carrying  the  gigantic  struggle  through 
to  an  absolutely  decisive  issue. 

The  earlier  deliberations,  relative  to  the 
readjustment  of  boundaries  and  territory, 
moved  rapidly  to  their  expected  results. 
Russia,  content  with  the  possession  of  Con 
stantinople,  and  the  extension  of  her  fron 
tier  to  the  Carpathians,  agreed  readily  to 
the  re-creation  of  Poland  as  an  autonomous 
and  "  buffer  "  state  between  herself  and 
Germany.  To  Roumania  was  given 
Transylvania  on  the  condition,  arranged 
previously  to  her  entrance  into  the  war, 
that  she  return  to  Bulgaria  the  territory 
wrested  from  her  during  the  second  Bal 
kan  War,  and  Servia  was  enlarged  by  the 
acquisition  of  Herzegovina  and  Bosnia. 
The  boundary  between  Italy  and  Austria 
was  rectified  so  as  to  restore  to  Italy  her 
lost  provinces.  France,  as  the  reward  of 
the  heroic  struggle  of  her  citizen  soldiery, 
regained  possession  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 


THE  PEACE  OF  GENEVA  7 

raine.  Japan  was  permitted  to  hold  Kiao- 
Chou  and  acquire  from  China  the  lease 
formerly  held  by  Germany,  a  pledge  being 
given  for  the  maintenance  of  the  "  Open 
Door  "  in  that  country. 

So  far,  so  good;  but  when  it  came  to 
the  insistence  by  the  Allies  on  an  indemnity 
of  fifteen  billion  dollars,  the  first  install 
ments  of  which  were  to  be  paid  into  the 
Belgian  treasury,  Germany  presented  an 
adamantine  front.  And  to  the  demands 
of  Great  Britain  that  the  German  fleet  be 
reduced  by  the  distribution  of  its  major 
units  among  the  fleets  of  the  Allies,  she 
retorted  that  if  the  transfer  of  so  much  as 
a  ship's  launch  to  a  foreign  flag  were  again 
suggested,  Germany  would  withdraw  at 
once  from  the  convention,  and  "  would 
fight  it  out  until  the  last  mark,  the  last 
loaf  of  bread,  and  the  last  man  was 
gone !  " 

The   convention  was   adjourned  for   a 


8  AMERICA  FALLEN 

week;  and  in  view  of  the  uncompromising 
front  presented  by  Germany  and  Great 
Britain,  and  the  probability  of  a  con 
tinuance  of  the  war  to  the  bitter  end,  the 
world  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  profound 
despondency  and  foreboding. 

The  next  session  was  marked  by  the 
most  dramatic  incident  of  the  whole  con 
ference.  No  sooner  had  the  meeting  been 
declared  open  than  the  German  pleni 
potentiary  abruptly  announced  that  he  had 
received  instructions  from  Berlin  to  state 
that,  if  no  more  mention  were  made  of  the 
dismemberment  of  her  fleet,  Germany 
would  agree  to  pay  an  indemnity  to  the 
Allies  of  fifteen  billion  dollars,  and  give 
the  customary  pledges  therefor. 

The  curt  announcement  of  Germany's 
assumption  of  this  stupendous  obligation 
produced,  even  in  that  well-poised  as 
sembly,  a  barely-checked  murmur  of  as 
tonishment.  The  British  plenipotentiary 


THE  PEACE  OF  GENEVA  9 

asked  for  a  three  days'  adjournment.  He 
was  instructed  by  his  home  government 
to  stand  firm  for  the  disruption  of  the 
German  navy;  but  on  his  cabling  that  it 
was  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  rest  of 
the  Allies,  that  the  assumption  by  Ger 
many  of  this  enormous  indebtedness  would 
so  far  cripple  her  financially  as  to  render 
any  material  increase  of  her  naval  forces 
impossible  before  the  existing  ships  were 
becoming  obsolete,  he  was  instructed  to  ac 
cept  the  German  conditions. 

And  so,  on  the  ist  of  March,  1916, 
the  thirteen  signatures  which  ended  the 
greatest  moral  and  material  tragedy  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  world  were  appended 
and  peace  settled  over  the  stricken  people 
of  Europe. 

And,  thereafter,  men  said  to  one  an 
other  when  they  met :  "  How  came  it  about 
that  Germany  so  suddenly  agreed  to  pay 
that  fifteen-billion-dollar  indemnity?  " 


II 

THE  COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM 

ON  the  morning  of  the  day  following  the 
signing  of  the  Peace  of  Geneva,  Germany's 
plenipotentiary,  Count  Von  Buelow,  en 
tered  the  Council  Chamber  at  Potsdam 
punctually  at  the  hour  appointed.  There 
was  gloom  upon  his  face — and  weariness, 
too;  for  throughout  the  night  journey  to 
Berlin,  the  burden  of  that  fifteen-billion- 
dollar  indemnity,  which  the  Kaiser  had 
authorized  him  to  impose  upon  stricken 
Germany,  had  lain  heavily  upon  his  mind. 
Heavy  gloom  sat  also  upon  the  faces  of  the 
distinguished  company  around  the  council 
board.  Von  Hollweg,  the  Imperial  Chan 
cellor  was  there,  and  the  foreign  secretary, 
Von  Jagow;  Falkenhayn,  also,  the  Chief  of 
the  Great  General  Staff,  and  next  to  him, 

10 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM     1 1 

Von  Tirpitz,  creator  and  controlling  mind 
of  the  German  Navy.  Present  also  was 
the  chief  of  the  German  Secret  Service,  and 
last,  but  not  least,  the  Chief  of  the  German 
Official  Press  Bureau. 

Von  Buelow  had  scarcely  taken  his  seat 
when  the  murmur  of  desultory  conversa 
tion  suddenly  ceased,  and  every  man  stiff 
ened  to  the  habitual  pose  of  military  and 
state  decorum,  as  the  Kaiser  entered  and 
strode  to  the  head  of  the  table. 

Was  he  changed  by  the  tragic  happen 
ings  of  the  last  twenty  months?  Yes,  and 
no.  The  hair  had  whitened,  and  the  stu 
pendous  burden  of  responsibility  had 
bowed  somewhat,  as  well  it  might,  the 
shoulders  upon  which  it  had  borne  so 
heavily.  But  there  was  something  in  that 
flashing  blue  eye,  in  the  set  of  the  lips,  and 
in  the  whole  atmosphere  of  that  ever-to-be- 
remembered  face,  which  showed  that  he 
was  still  a  Prussian  of  the  Prussians,  and 


12  AMERICA  FALLEN 

that  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  latest, 
if  not  the  last  of  the  Hohenzollerns, 
burned  unquenched  and  unquenchable  in 
the  soul  of  the  man. 

Obeying  the  scarcely  perceptible  wave 
of  his  hand,  the  distinguished  company 
seated  themselves  with  their  Kaiser  for  a 
council  which,  as  subsequent  events 
proved  with  lightning-like  rapidity,  was 
to  be  big  with  the  fate,  not  this  time  of 
Europe,  but  of  the  great  Western  Hemi 
sphere. 

And  thus  he  spoke : 

u  The  Day  has  come  and  gone  and  Ger 
many  has  lost!  What  may  have  been  and 
what  yet  may  be  the  purposes  of  an  in 
scrutable  Providence  neither  you  nor  I  can 
tell.  This  much  I  do  know,  that  if  the 
sword  was  thrust  into  our  hands  by  the 
Almighty  for  our  own  chastisement,  it  is 
for  us  to  bow  our  heads  in  submission. 
That  God  sent  us  into  battle  for  our  own 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM     13 

permanent  undoing,  I  do  not  believe.  Our 
beloved  Fatherland  has  set  up  before  the 
eyes  of  the  world  a  kultur  too  broad  and 
beneficent,  and  the  influence  of  that  kultur 
upon  the  great  world  outside  of  Germany 
has  been  too  profound  and  will  prove  too 
lasting,  for  God  ever  to  contemplate  the 
fall  and  passing  away  of  the  great  Ger 
man  Empire.  As  surely  as  gold  is  purified 
by  fire,  so  surely  shall  Germany  emerge, 
freed  of  all  dross  and  with  more  splendid 
potentialities  for  the  future,  out  of  this 
seven-times  heated  furnace  of  the  war. 

"  I  ask  you  to  consider  that  Germany  has 
passed  through  this  supreme  ordeal  with 
her  vitality  unimpaired  and  her  military 
prestige  enhanced.  I  will  even  say  that 
she  is  the  stronger  for  her  territorial 
losses.  Alsace  and  Lorraine  have  ever 
been  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Germany — 
the  one  impassable  barrier  to  cordial  rela 
tions  with  our  great  French  neighbor. 


14  AMERICA  FALLEN 

whose  good  will,  as  you  well  know,  it  has 
been  my  earnest  endeavor  to  win.  And 
as  for  our  lost  colonial  possessions,  I,  as 
well  as  you,  have  long  recognized  that  they 
were  too  widely  scattered,  too  little  co 
ordinated,  to  carry  much  military  value; 
moreover,  as  outlets  for  our  expanding 
population,  they  have  failed  of  their  pur 
pose. 

"  Of  the  crime  of  Kiao-Chou  I  will  say 
no  more  than  that  Germany  never  forgets ! 

"  Has  Germany,  then,  no  future  beyond 
the  seas?  She  has,  most  assuredly,  and  it 
lies  (would  that  we  had  recognized  the 
fact,  and  recognizing,  acted  upon  it  long 
ago)  in  the  Western  Hemisphere,  in  the 
southern  half  of  the  great  American  con 
tinent.  South  America  beckons  the  Ger 
man  colonist  and  calls  to  us  for  the  further 
exploitation  of  its  abundant  natural  re 
sources  by  that  combination  of  German 
science,  capital,  and  organization,  with 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM     15 

which  our  competitors  have  found  it  im 
possible  sucessfully  to  compete. 

"  But  if,  by  purchase  or  by  such  means 
as  the  time  and  circumstance  may  demand, 
we  are  to  found  a  colony  or  colonies  in 
South  America,  it  will  be  necessary  to  clear 
the  air  by  disposing,  once  and  for  all,  of 
that  curious  fiction  which  has  come  to  be 
known  as  the  '  Monroe  Doctrine.'  The 
peculiar  claims  set  forth  therein  by  the 
United  States  have  been  described  as  '  the 
most  magnificent  bluff  in  all  history  and, 
so  far,  the  most  successful.'  But  you  and 
I  know,  and  it  is  known  in  all  the  chan 
cellories  of  Europe,  that  the  bravado  has 
been  successful  only  by  our  sufferance,  and 
because  the  great  problems  of  Europe, 
for  which  the  late  war  has  been  fought, 
called  for  more  pressing  solution. 

"  I  have  spoken  of  the  '  Monroe  Doc 
trine  '  as  a  fiction — perhaps  I  had  better 
have  described  it  as  composed  of  many  fie- 


1 6  AMERICA  FALLEN 

tions,  not  the  least  among  which  has  been 
the  belief  that  back  of  this  policy  lay  the 
strength  of  the  British  fleet.  I  know  not 
with  certainty  how  much  of  truth  there  has 
been  in  that  assumption;  but,  thanks  to  the 
work  of  our  plenipotentiary  at  Geneva,  an 
understanding,  secret  and  supplementary 
to  the  general  treaty,  was  reached  with  the 
British  representative,  by  which,  in  con 
sideration  of  our  withdrawal  from  the 
Euphrates  Valley  (which  the  collapse  of 
the  Turkish  Empire  has  rendered  less  at 
tractive  to  German  enterprise  than  it 
was),  Great  Britain  pledges  herself  to  a 
neutral  attitude  on  the  *  Monroe  Doctrine,1 
except  so  far  as  it  affects  her  own  North 
American  possessions. 

"  With  the  fleet  of  Great  Britain  elimi 
nated  as  an  element  in  the  problem,  it  be 
comes  possible  for  Germany,  as  I  shall 
show  you  later,  to  achieve,  through  the 
instrumentality  of  her  fleet,  a  feat  of  arms 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM     1 7 

which,  in  a  swift  series  of  operations,  shall 
restore  our  naval  and  military  prestige  in 
the  eyes  of  the  German  people,  demolish 
for  all  time  the  *  Monroe  Doctrine,'  and 
transfer  from  .the  shoulders  of  Germany 
to  those  of  the  United  States  of  America 
the  burden  of  the  fifteen-billion-dollar 
indemnity,  imposed  upon  us  by  the  Treaty 
to  which,  only  yesterday,  we  appended  our 
signature. 

"  I  have  said  that  the  war  has  added  to 
our  military  prestige — I  will  go  further 
and  say  that,  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world, 
and  particularly  among  those  who  follow 
the  profession  of  arms,  our  military  pres 
tige  has  been  immeasurably  increased. 
We  set  out  to  fight  the  two  greatest  mili 
tary  powers,  next  to  ourselves;  and  alone 
we  would  have  crushed  them  utterly.  As 
the  event  has  proved,  Germany  and  Austria 
found  themselves  confronted  by  the  em 
battled  hosts  of  no  less  than  ten  nations, 


1 8  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Nevertheless,  we  carried  the  war  into  the 
enemy's  territory,  and,  so  far  as  Ger 
many  is  concerned,  we  presented  an  im 
pregnable  wall,  which  was  finally  pierced, 
only  by  overwhelming  numbers,  and, 
thanks  largely  to  our  American  friends,  by 
a  preponderance  of  artillery  against  which 
even  the  indomitable  soldiers  of  Germany 
could  not  prevail. 

"  It  is  only  by  the  mass  of  the  German 
people  that  these  things  are  not  well  un 
derstood.  We,  of  the  ruling  class,  you  will 
remember,  told  the  people,  brought  up 
as  they  were  to  believe  in  the  absolute  in 
vincibility  of  the  German  army,  that  within 
a  month  of  the  declaration  of  war  we 
should  be  in  Paris  and  within  two  months 
in  St.  Petersburg.  Instead,  they  have  seen 
that  army  arrested,  held  fast,  and  finally 
thrown  back  in  defeat  upon  its  own  bor 
ders.  The  Socialists  of  Germany,  work 
ing  upon  the  minds  of  a  defeated  and  dis- 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM     19 

couraged  people,  are  laying  the  blame  for 
this  disaster  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
very  class  which  has  made  Germany  what 
it  is.  We,  it  is,  who  have  made  the  Ger 
man  Empire  and  given  to  it  the  only  sys 
tem  of  government  which,  bearing  in 
mind  the  century-long  training  and  peculiar 
temperament  of  its  people,  can  maintain  it 
intact  amid  the  powerful  and  jealous  na 
tions  of  Europe,  and  carry  it  forward  to 
the  greater  future  that  awaits  it. 

"The  prestige  of  the  army  and  navy  and 
the  confidence  of  the  people  in  its  ruling 
class  can  be  restored  only  by  some  swift 
and  brilliant  feat  of  arms — and  in  view 
of  the  rapidly  augmenting  strength  of  the 
Socialistic  upheaval,  that  feat  of  arms  can 
not  be  performed  too  soon. 

"  The  United  States,  as  you  are  well 
aware,  has  recently  reaffirmed  the  '  Mon 
roe  Doctrine  '  by  definite  Congressional 
action,  forbidding  the  acquisition  by  any 


20  AMERICA  FALLEN 

alien  power  of  harbors  or  coaling  stations 
which  are  located  within  striking  distance 
of  the  Panama  Canal,  and  which  might 
serve  as  a  base  for  hostile  operations  in 
the  Caribbean. 

''  That,  gentlemen,  is  a  clear  and  bold — 
I  had  almost  said  defiant — expression  of 
one  of  the  most  important  among  the 
great  foreign  policies  which  the  United 
States,  since  the  period  of  the  Spanish 
War,  has  adopted  and  proclaimed  to  the 
world  in  no  unmeasured  terms.  In  addi 
tion  to  the  '  Monroe  Doctrine  '  I  have  but 
to  refer  to  their  championship  of  the 
*  Open  Door  '  in  China,  to  the  matter  of 
the  exclusion  of  the  Asiatics,  and  to  the 
construction  and  fortification  of  the  Pan 
ama  Canal;  which  great  work  and  the 
Caribbean,  as  I  foresee  it,  in  the  future 
naval  wars  of  the  New  World,  will  be 
what  Gibraltar  and  the  Mediterranean 
were  to  the  contending  navies  of  the  eight- 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM    2 1 

eenth  century.  The  ultimate  entry  of  the 
great  republic  of  the  Western  Hemisphere 
into  the  field  of  world  politics  was,  of 
course,  inevitable ;  but  that  this  entrance 
would  be  marked  by  the  adoption  of  a  line 
of  policies  so  bold  as  these,  involving  the 
possibility,  nay  the  certainty,  of  conflict 
sooner  or  later  with  the  great  naval  and 
military  powers  of  the  world,  I,  for  one, 
was  not  prepared  to  believe. 

"  Had  there  been  in  the  United  States 
that  intimate  and  well-balanced  relation 
ship  and  co-operation  between  the  diplo 
matic  and  the  naval  and  military  services 
which  obtains  in  Germany,  the  growth  of 
these  ambitious  policies  would  have  been 
marked  by  a  commensurate  growth  of  the 
military  and  naval  forces  of  the  country. 
This  co-operation,  as  you  are  well  aware, 
has  been  conspicuously  absent.  The 
United  States  Congress,  always  fearful 
and  jealous  of  what  it  is  pleased  to  term 


22  AMERICA  FALLEN 

'militarism/  has  failed  to  listen  to  the 
warnings  of  its  military  advisers;  with 
the  result,  to-day,  that  it  is  endeavor 
ing  to  support  a  line  of  first-class  in 
ternational  policies  with  a  third-class 
navy,  and  with  military  forces  which  are  so 
insignificant  that,  in  the  eyes  of  a  first- 
class  military  nation,  they  may  be  regarded 
as  practically  negligible.  The  burden  of 
responsibility  for  these  conditions  lies  not 
upon  the  naval  and  military  advisers  of 
Congress,  but  upon  Congress  itself;  which, 
as  our  ambassadors  have  from  time  to 
time  informed  us,  does  not  hesitate  to  play 
politics  with  matters  which  involve  the 
very  life  and  death  of  the  nation  itself. 

"  Should  the  blow  which  Germany,  in  the 
hour  of  her  dire  need,  is  about  to  strike 
against  the  United  States  lead  that  great 
country  to  a  realization  of  the  necessity  at 
all  times  for  proper  naval  and  military  pre 
paredness,  the  regret  which  I  and  Ger- 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM    23 

many  feel  at  having  to  break  our  friendly 
relations  with  a  country  with  which  we 
have  always  lived  in  perfect  amity,  will  be 
tempered  by  the  thought  that,  out  of  her 
temporary  loss  she  will  reap  a  future  gain 
of  inestimable  benefit. 

"  It  is  noteworthy  that  our  swift  descent 
upon  that  great  country  could  not  be  car 
ried  out  with  any  reasonable  hope  of  suc 
cess,  had  the  United  States  Congress  but 
given  heed  to  the  words  of  its  first  soldier- 
president  which  were  spoken,  if  my  mem 
ory  serves  me  well,  in  his  first  annual  ad 
dress.  '  To  be  prepared  for  war,'  said 
Washington,  '  is  one  of  the  most  effectual 
means  of  preserving  peace.  A  free  people 
ought  not  only  to  be  armed,  but  disci 
plined;  to  which  end  a  uniform  and  well- 
digested  plan  is  requisite.'  ' 

The  Kaiser  ceased  speaking  and,  turn 
ing  to  the  Foreign  Secretary,  he  said: 
"  Von  Jagow,  have  you  had  the  necessary 


24  AMERICA  FALLEN 

conversations  with  the  Danish  minister, 
and  have  you  requested  him  to  be  pres 
ent?" 

"  The  conversations  were  eminently  sat 
isfactory,  your  Majesty.  The  Danish 
minister  is  in  the  anteroom  and  awaits 
your  commands," 

"  Send  for  him,"  said  the  Kaiser. 

The  Danish  minister  entered,  and  he 
was  no  sooner  seated  than  the  Kaiser, 
without  any  preliminaries,  abruptly  asked, 
'  What  sum  do  you  name  as  the  purchase 
price  of  the  island  of  St.  Thomas  in  the 
West  Indies?" 

"  Twenty-five  million  dollars,  your 
Majesty,"  said  the  minister. 

"We  will  give  you  that  sum  for  the 
island,"  said  the  Kaiser.  "  The  only  stip 
ulation  is  that  you  shall  pledge  yourself  to 
secrecy,  leaving  it  to  Germany  to  announce, 
at  such  time  as  may  seem  best,  the  transfer 
of  the  island.  Here  are  the  necessary 


COUNCIL  CHAMBER  AT  POTSDAM    25 

papers,  and  if  you  will  affix  your  signature 
the  transfer  can  be  consummated  here  and 


The  Danish  minister  smiled,  took  the 
pen,  signed  the  documents,  and,  after  the 
customary  felicitations,  withdrew. 


Ill 

AN   UNDEFENDED  TREASURE    LAND 

''GENTLEMEN,"  said  the  Kaiser,  as  the 
door  closed  upon  the  retiring  Danish  min 
ister,  "  I  have  frequently  said  to  you  in 
this  council  chamber  that  the  future  of 
Germany  lies  upon  the  sea.  To-day,  in 
spite  of  the  enforced  inaction  of  our  fleet 
during  the  war,  I  hold  to  that  doctrine 
with  unshaken  conviction.  Hence  I  did 
not  hesitate,  Von  Buelow,  to  instruct  you 
to  offer  fifteen  billion  dollars  as  the  price 
of  redeeming  the  fleet. 

"  If  you  ask  me,  as  all  Germany,  doubt 
less,  is  asking  itself  at  this  very  hour,  how 
it  will  be  possible  for  our  stricken  Father 
land  to  discharge  this  enormous  obligation, 
I  answer  that  not  a  single  pfennig  of  this 
indemnity  shall  be  raised  by  the  taxation 


AN  UNDEFENDED  TREASURE  LAND     27 

of  my  beloved  people,  or  be  paid  out  of 
their  national  treasury. 

"  Gentlemen,  you  may  rest  assured  that 
when  I  authorized  the  acceptance  of  the 
indemnity,  I  had  already  determined  on 
a  plan  by  which  this  stupendous  sum  could 
be  realized  without  adding  to  the  heavy 
obligations  which  the  war  had  already  im 
posed  upon  us." 

Springing  to  his  feet,  the  Kaiser  swept 
his  outstretched  arm  to  the  westward,  and 
his  voice  took  on  that  incisive  staccato 
which  indicates  in  him  the  deepest  feeling: 
"  On  yonder  side  of  the  Atlantic  lies  an 
undefended  treasure  land,  fifty  billions  of 
whose  one  hundred  and  fifty  billions  of 
Wealth  are  to  be  found  on  the  seaboard, 
and  within  easy  reach  of  an  expeditionary 
force  and  the  guns  of  a  hostile  fleet.  It  is 
my  purpose  that  the  German  Navy,  on 
whose  behalf  I  have  assumed  the  indem 
nity,  shall  be  made  the  instrument  for  se- 


28  AMERICA  FALLEN 

curing  the  means  of  payment.  It  will  ap 
peal  to  your  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things 
that  the  United  States,  which  has  con 
tributed  so  largely  to  our  defeat,  should 
pay  the  costs  of  this  war  and  that  the  navy 
should  play  the  part  of  collector. 

"  If  it  should  be  said  that  this  descent 
upon  the  coasts  of  the  United  States  is  a 
premeditated  attack  upon  a  friendly  power, 
our  reply  will  be,  that,  though  the  charge 
is  technically  true,  ethically  it  is  false. 
When  that  neutral  country  turned  itself 
into  an  arsenal  for  the  supply  of  guns, 
ammunition,  and  military  stores  and  equip 
ment  to  the  enemies  of  Germany,  it  be 
came  in  effect  an  active  participant  in  our 
overthrow.  You,  Von  Falkenhayn,  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  military  supplies 
furnished  to  the  Allies  by  the  United 
States  were  of  more  value  to  them  than 
several  army  corps.  It  was  the  preponder 
ance  of  artillery,  due  in  large  measure  to 


AN  UNDEFENDED  TREASURE  LAND     29 

the  purchases  from  America,  that  was  the 
ultimate  cause  of  our  loss  of  the  war. 

"Although  it  was  technically  correct  and 
in  agreement  with  international  law,  the 
material  assistance  rendered  by  the  United 
States  was,  I  repeat,  morally  wrong;  and 
in  sending  my  fleet  to  exact  from  that 
country  both  the  indemnity  and  the  cost  to 
Germany  of  the  war,  or  twenty  billion  dol 
lars  in  all,  I  feel  that  I  am  performing  no 
more  than  an  act  of  righteous  retribution. 

"  The  object  of  our  expedition  will  be 
greatly  facilitated  by  the  fact  that  the 
dreadnought  fleet  of  the  United  States, 
consisting  of  ten  ships,  is  now  assembled 
off  Vera  Cruz — the  Washington  Govern 
ment  being  still  engaged  in  toying  with  the 
Mexican  situatidn  by  following  out  its 
futile  policy  of  'Watchful  waiting.' 
Equally  favorable  to  our  plan's  is  the  fact 
that  the  bulk  of  the  effective  regular  force 
of  30,000  men  in  the  Continental  United 


30  AMERICA  FALLEN 

States  is  gathered  on  the  Mexican  border. 
The  pre-dreadnought  fleet  of  the  United 
States,  moreover,  is  being  paraded,  just 
now,  in  the  various  ports  of  the  Pacific 
Coast. 

"  You,  Von  Tirpitz,  will  agree  with  me 
that  the  prolonged  inactivity  of  our  fleet 
in  the  North  Sea  and  Baltic  ports  has  ren 
dered  it  desirable  that  the  ships  be  at  once 
sent  to  sea  for  a  series  of  maneuvers  on  a 
grand  scale,  the  operations  to  extend  over 
a  series  of  weeks. 

"  After  a  grand  review,  which  I  shall 
hold  off  Heligoland,  the  fleet  will  be  dis 
patched  to  the  Atlantic,  ostensibly  for 
these  maneuvers,  but  actually  for  a  descent 
upon  the  coasts  of  the  United  States. 

"  From  a  rendezvous  in  the  western  At 
lantic,  the  various  divisions  of  the  main 
fleet  will  move  to  the  selected  points  of 
attack  in  accordance  with  the  general  plans 
formulated  several  years  ago  as  the  result 


AN  UNDEFENDED  TREASURE  LAND    31 

of  our  academic  study  of  the  problem  of 
an  invasion  of  the  United  States.  The 
modifications  necessary  for  the  present 
enterprise  will  be  such  as  are  rendered 
necessary  by  the  present  strength  of  our 
fleet,  the  location  and  strength  of  the 
enemy's  forces,  and  by  the  imperative  de 
mand  for  secrecy,  dispatch,  and  strict  co 
ordination  as  to  time  and  place. 

That,  gentlemen,  is  the  plan  and  April 
i,  1916,  will  be  '  Der  Tag!'" 


IV 

EMBARKATION  OF  THE  GERMAN  ARMY 

UPON  the  declaration  of  peace,  the  Ger 
man  Government  announced  that  the  mili 
tary  rule  and  censorship  which  had  ob 
tained  throughout  the  war  would  be  ex 
tended  to  cover  the  few  weeks  which 
would  be  required  for  the  demobilization 
of  the  German  army.  It  was  explained 
that  this  course  was  adopted  for  the  double 
purpose  of  facilitating  the  orderly  return 
of  the  citizen-soldiers  to  their  homes,  and 
of  delaying  any  publication  of  the  strength 
of  the  German  army  in  the  field  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  of  its  total  losses, 
until  such  time  as  the  government  thought 
best  to  make  these  facts  public. 

On  the  very  day,  March  ist,  of  the  sign- 
32 


EMBARKATION  OF  GERMAN  ARMY    33 

ing  of  the  Peace  of  Geneva,  and  in  some 
cases  even  while  the  ink  of  the  signatories 
was  wet  upon  the  paper,  the  great  fleet  of 
German  merchant  ships  which  had  been  in 
terned  in  foreign  ports  during  the  war 
cast  loose  its  moorings  and  set  sail  for  the 
Fatherland.  Among  the  first  of  these 
ships  to  start  out  from  her  pier  and  head 
for  the  open  sea  was  the  great  Hamburg- 
American  liner  Vaterland,  and  as  she 
and  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II,  of  the  North 
German  Lloyd,  followed  at  intervals 
by  other  ships  of  these  two  companies, 
steamed  down  the  North  River,  and  out 
through  the  Narrows,  New  York  wished 
them  Godspeed  on  their  homeward  voyage 
with  the  flying  of  flags,  the  dipping  of  en 
signs  by  the  shipping,  and  the  prolonged 
roar  of  a  thousand  steam  whistles  and 
sirens. 

Meanwhile  in  Germany  all  public  traffic 
over  the  railways  was  suspended  and  the 


34  AMERICA  FALLEN 

huge  task  of  returning  some  seven  millions 
of  men  to  their  homes  was  begun. 

Not  all  of  the  troops,  however,  were 
thus  immediately  redistributed  to  the 
farms  and  factories  and  business  houses  of 
Germany.  A  picked  force  of  200,000 
veterans  of  the  first  line  was  diverted  to 
the  leading  German  seaports  on  the  North 
Sea  and  the  Baltic,  and  within  a  few  days 
after  the  close  of  the  war  20,000  of  these 
troops,  with  the  necessary  artillery  and 
equipment,  had  been  embarked  upon  cer 
tain  transports  of  moderate  size  and  draft, 
which,  as  soon  as  the  troops  were  aboard, 
pulled  out  into  midstream  and  awaited 
further  orders.  In  every  case  the  troops 
went  aboard  at  night,  and  during  the  oper 
ation  the  cordon  of  secrecy  drawn  around 
the  various  naval  bases  and  ports  at  which 
the  embarkation  took  place  was  tightened. 

While  the  loaded  transports  were  await 
ing  their  orders,  the  troops  remained  be- 


EMBARKATION  OF  GERMAN  ARMY    35 

low  deck  and  only  the  regular  working 
force  of  the  ship  was  visible.  One  by  one, 
and  from  widely  separated  harbors,  these 
ships  slipped  their  moorings  and  put  to 
sea.  Some  by  the  way  of  the  English 
Channel  and  others  following  the  route 
around  the  north  coast  of  Scotland  and 
Ireland,  they  proceeded  at  slow  speed  to 
their  appointed  rendezvous  in  the  western 
Atlantic. 

Each  ship  sailed  at  sundown,  and  dur 
ing  the  first  night  out  the  color  and  band 
ing  of  its  smokestacks  were  changed  to 
that  of  some  foreign  ship  of  similar  size 
and  contour,  the  corresponding  foreign  flag 
being  flown.  Those  that  took  the  south 
erly  route  regulated  their  speed  so  as  to 
pass  through  the  straits  of  Dover  at  night; 
those  that  laid  their  course  around  the 
north  of  Scotland  maintained  a  good  off 
ing,  beyond  signaling  distance  of  the 
coast  guard  and  signal  stations.  As  soon 


36  AMERICA  FALLEN 

as  it  was  well  clear  of  the  Channel  and 
the  Irish  coast,  each  ship,  avoiding  the 
regular  sailing  routes,  laid  its  course  to  the 
westward. 

Meanwhile  the  work  of  transforming 
the  largest  and  fastest  of  the  German 
ocean  liners,  headed  by  the  Imperator 
and  her  recently-completed  sister  ship,  the 
new  Bismarck,  into  transports  was  being 
rushed  day  and  night  by  the  largest  work 
ing  force  that  could  be  crowded  upon  their 
decks.  The  commodious,  first-class  state 
rooms  were  stripped  of  their  furniture 
and  galvanized-pipe  folding  berths  were 
fitted  on  each  wall.  The  spacious  saloons, 
restaurants,  palm  gardens,  etc.,  were  sim 
ilarly  denuded  of  their  furnishings  and 
fitted  with  berths.  The  wide  promenade 
decks  were  inclosed  by  canvas  and  fitted 
with  berthing  accommodation.  So  vast  is 
the  space  available  on  the  nine  decks  and 
in  the  holds  of  these  ships,  which  in  peace 


EMBARKATION  OF  GERMAN  ARMY    37 

time  can  carry  5,000  souls,  that  when 
the  alterations  were  completed,  it  was 
found  that  each  of  the  three  ships  of  the 
Imperator  class  could  carry  10,000  troops 
with  their  full  equipment. 

The  work  of  transforming  the  liners 
that  had  been  interned  in  the  United 
States  began  on  the  day  they  left  New 
York,  and  they  were  stripped  and  ready 
for  the  shipyard  workmen  by  the  time, 
reven  days  later,  they  reached  the  home 
ports.  With  such  efficiency  and  dispatch 
was  this  work  carried  through  that  the 
second  expeditionary  force  of  50,000  men 
was  embarked  and  had  sailed  on  or  before 
the  28th  of  March.  The  transports 
carrying  this  force  were  vessels  of  :crom 
20  to  23  knots'  speed.  Some  of  them  sailed 
boldly  on  advertised  schedules,  direct  for 
New  York;  the  rest  slipped  away  by  night, 
adopting  the  same  ruses  and  secrecy  as  the 
transports  of  the  first  expedition.  They 


38  AMERICA  FALLEN 

sailed  at  intervals  during  the  last  two 
weeks  of  March,  and  the  rate  of  steaming 
was  so  adjusted  as  to  bring  the  whole  ex 
pedition  to  New  York,  Boston,  and  Wash 
ington  between  the  ist  and  3d  of  April. 

The  third  army  of  130,000  men,  in 
transports  of  from  14  to  19  knots'  speed 
set  sail  on  April  ist,  the  faster  ships  of 
the  George  Washington  and  America  type 
pushing  on  with  all  speed,  and  the  slower 
ships  proceeding  as  a  fleet  under  convoy 
of  the  ten  battleships  of  the  Wittlesbach 
and  Kaiser  Wilhelm  II.  classes. 

And  so  it  came  about  that,  by  employ 
ing  the  full  force  of  every  naval  and  pri 
vate  shipyard  in  the  country,  Germany, 
within  the  month,  had  embarked  upon  the 
seas  an  army  of  invasion  composed  of 
200,000  of  the  picked  veteran  troops  of 
the  war,  completely  equipped  with  artil 
lery,  transport,  and  supplies. 

And,   thanks   to   the   tightening  of  the 


EMBARKATION  OF  GERMAN  ARMY    39 

censorship  and  the  patriotic  silence  of  the 
shipyard  employees,  not  a  whisper  of  what 
was  going  on  escaped  to  the  outside  world; 
until  on  April  ist  the  third  expeditionary 
force,  convoyed  by  battleships,  steamed 
boldly  out  into  the  North  Sea  and  laid  its 
course  by  way  of  the  English  Channel  for 
the  coasts  of  America. 


THE  GERMAN  FLEET  SETS  SAIL 

ON  March  I5th,  there  was  published  in 
the  leading  Berlin  papers,  and  repeated 
throughout  the  world,  the  following  official 
announcement:  "The  restoration  of  peace, 
the  return  of  our  valiant  army,  and  the 
fact  that  our  navy  has  emerged  from  the 
war  with  its  strength  unimpaired,  will  be 
celebrated  by  a  grand  review  of  the  whole 
German  fleet  which  will  be  held  in  the 
Bight  of  Heligoland,  in  the  presence  of 
the  Kaiser.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  re 
view,  in  order  to  afford  the  fleet  an  oppor 
tunity,  on  an  extended  scale,  for  those  ex 
ercises  on  the  high  seas  which  have  been 
denied  to  it  because  of  the  overwhelming 
strength  of  the  enemy,  it  will  set  sail  for 

a  series  of  grand  maneuvers. 
4o 


THE  GERMAN  FLEET  SETS  SAIL     41 

'  The  operations  will  be  based  upon  the 
theory  that  a  powerful  enemy's  fleet  is  ap 
proaching  the  coast  of  Europe  from  the 
westward  for  the  purpose  of  finding,  and, 
if  possible,  destroying  the  German  fleet. 
Early  information  of  this  movement  hav 
ing  reached  the  Admiralty,  our  fleet  has 
been  dispatched  to  seek  out  and,  if  pos 
sible,  destroy  the  enemy  (which  has  been 
reported  as  somewhere  in  the  mid-At 
lantic)  ,  before  he  shall  have  reached  Euro 
pean  waters.  Our  forces  will  be  about 
equally  divided  into  the  attacking,  or  Red 
fleet,  and  the  defending,  or  Blue  fleet.  Im 
mediately  after  the  review,  the  Red  fleet 
will  steam  to  the  westward,  and  when  it 
has  reached  a  designated  position,  will 
commence  its  approach.  Thirty-six  hours 
later  the  defending,  or  Blue  fleet  will  be 
dispatched  to  meet  the  enemy." 

The  morning  of  March  i8th  revealed, 
drawn  up  under  the  lee  of  Heligoland,  the 


42  AMERICA  FALLEN 

greatest  naval  force  that  had  ever  assem 
bled  under  the  German  flag.  Anchored 
in  five  long  parallel  lines,  it  covered  many 
square  miles  of  the  calm  waters  of  the 
Bight;  and  the  ships,  glistening  in  a  new 
coat  of  paint,  showed  up,  under  the  bril 
liant  sun  of  that  bright  spring  morning, 
with  all  the  picturesqueness  and  air  of 
gaiety  befitting  a  great  national  pageant. 

The  first  line,  six  miles  in  length,  was 
made  up  of  dreadnoughts  and  battle- 
cruisers,  the  second  line  of  pre-dread- 
nought  battleships,  the  third  of  armored 
cruisers  and  light  cruisers,  the  fourth  of 
destroyers  and  seagoing  submarines,  and 
the  fifth  of  the  auxiliaries. 

Promptly  at  the  hour  of  twelve,  the 
Kaiser,  from  the  bridge  of  the  Hohen- 
zollern,  opened  the  review,  and  as  he 
made  his  way  up  and  down  those  far-flung 
lines,  ship  after  ship  thundered  forth  its 
volleys  in  honor  of  the  man  to  whom, 


THE  GERMAN  FLEET  SETS  SAIL     43 

despite  the  recent  reverses  of  Germany, 
the  hearts  of  his  people  turned  with  faith 
unshaken. 

After  the  Hohenzollern  had  made  the 
circuit  of  the  fleet,  slue  steamed  a  couple 
of  miles  to  the  westward,  and  anchored. 
Then  the  ships  of  the  Red  fleet,  composed 
of  the  eight  dreadnoughts  of  the  Thurin- 
gen  and  Nassau  classes,  the  battle-cruisers, 
twelve  light  cruisers,  and  thirty  seagoing 
destroyers,  weighed  anchor  and  saluted  the 
Kaiser,  as  they  steamed  into  the  North 
Sea  on  their  way  to  the  English  Channel. 

When  the  flagship  had  passed  the 
Hohenzollern,  the  admiral  in  command 
of  the  fleet  opened  his  sealed  orders,  which 
read  as  follows:  "  As  soon  as  it  is  clear  of 
the  English  Channel,  the  Red  fleet,  avoid 
ing  the  customary  steamship  routes,  will 
proceed  at  slow  speed  to  the  Caribbean, 
reaching  a  position  50  miles  to  the  south 
of  the  island  of  Hayti  by  April  5th.  Here 


44  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  Red  fleet  will  await  further  orders, 
which  will  reach  it  in  due  course  by  wire 
less  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Blue  fleet." 

Thirty-six  hours  after  the  sailing  of 
the  Red  fleet  the  Blue  fleet  set  sail.  It 
consisted  of  the  nine  dreadnoughts  of 
the  Koenig  and  Kaiser  classes,  the  ar 
mored  cruisers,  twelve  light  cruisers  of  23 
to  27  knots'  speed,  forty  destroyers,  and 
the  whole  of  the  thirty  seagoing  sub 
marines.  The  sealed  orders  of  the  ad 
miral  read  as  follows:  "After  clearing  the 
English  Channel,  the  Blue  fleet  will  pro 
ceed  on  a  course  midway  between  the  fre 
quented  lines  of  steamship  travel,  until  it 
reaches  the  thirty-fifth  parallel.  It  will 
then  proceed  due  west  until  it  reaches  a 
point  of  rendezvous  250  miles  from  the 
coast  of  the  United  States.  Here  it  will 
meet  a  fleet  of  transports  carrying  20,000 
troops.  At  the  point  of  rendezvous  the 


THE  GERMAN  FLEET  SETS  SAIL     45 

six  groups  of  submarines  will  replenish 
their  fuel  tanks,  and  proceed  to  the  respec 
tive  points  of  attack  assigned  to  them  at 
such  speeds  as  to  bring  them  off  the  various 
harbors  at  sundown  on  the  night  of  March 
3 1  st.  During  the  night  they  will  enter, 
assume  favorable  positions  for  attack, 
and,  where  conditions  allow,  will  go  to 
sleep  on  the  bottom  until  the  dawn  of 
April  ist. 

"The  transports  willproceedin  scattered 
formation  from  the  rendezvous  to  the 
various  points  of  landing,  steaming  at  such 
a  speed  that  they  will  be  off  the  coast  and 
within  two  hours'  steaming  of  the  landing 
places  at  sundown  on  March  3ist. 

The  battleship  divisions  will  reach  the 
entrance  to  the  harbors  of  the  cities  which 
they  are  to  lay  under  tribute  at  dawn  on 
April  i  st.  They  will  remain  outside  the 
extreme  range  of  the  coast  fortifications' 
guns,  and  at  a  signal  that  our  landing 


46  AMERICA  FALLEN 

forces  have  possession  of  the  forts,  they 
will  enter  and  take  position  for  bombard 
ment  of  the  cities." 

And  so,  on  March  20,  1916,  in  the 
dark  of  a  moonless  night,  the  last  ship  of 
the  greatest  naval  raid  ever  planned  in  the 
history  of  the  world  headed  silently  from 
the  Bight  of  Heligoland  for  the  North 
Sea  and  the  coast  of  North  America ! 


VI 

THE    CABINET   MEETING  AT   WASHINGTON 

ON  the  morning  of  March  2Oth,  there  ap 
peared  in  the  morning  papers  of  the  United 
States  a  dispatch  from  Berlin,  stating  that 
negotiations  were  believed  to  be  under  way 
between  the  governments  of  Germany  and 
Denmark,  having  in  view  the  purchase  by 
Germany  of  the  Danish  island  of  St. 
Thomas  in  the  West  Indies.  "  This  move 
ment,"  read  the  dispatch,  "  is  the  first  step 
in  a  policy  of  the  German  Empire  of  ac 
quiring,  by  purchase,  certain  coaling  and  re 
fitting  stations  for  the  use  of  its  great 
merchant  marine,  whose  activities,  released 
by  the  Peace  of  Geneva,  are  once  more  in 
full  swing.  Germany  realizes  and  accepts 
the  new  conditions  which  have  been  brought 
about  by  the  great  war.  For  the  future, 

47 


48  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  resources,  energy,  and  skill  of  the  Ger 
man  people  will  be  directed  less  to  naval 
and  military  achievements  and  more  than 
ever  to  the  upbuilding  and  enlargement  of 
her  internal  industries,  the  multiplication 
of  the  ships  of  her  merchant  marine,  and 
the  greater  extension  of  her  trade  and 
commerce  in  all  the  countries  of  the 
world." 

On  the  following  morning  there  ap 
peared  in  one  of  the  leading  New  York 
dailies  the  following  letter  from  Washing 
ton:  "  Had  not  yesterday's  dispatch  from 
Berlin,  stating  that  negotiations  were  under 
way  for  the  purchase  by  Germany  of  the 
Danish  West  Indian  Island  of  St.  Thomas, 
been  given  such  unusually  widespread  pub 
licity,  the  matter  would  not  have  attracted 
the  serious  attention  which  is  being  devoted 
to  it  in  Washington.  It  is  the  general  im 
pression  in  well-informed  circles  in  this  city 
that  the  tone  of  the  dispatch  and  its  world- 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    49 

wide  circulation  bear  the  earmarks  of  the 
German  official  press  bureau.  Were  it  not 
for  this,  its  moderate  and  pacific  tone  would 
carry  more  conviction.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
the  least  that  can  be  done  is  to  take  the  as 
surances  of  Germany's  new  point  of  view  as 
to  her  destiny  at  their  face  value.  The 
serious  side  of  this  matter  for  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  however,  is  not 
the  question  as  to  what  will  be  Germany's 
future  world  policy,  so  much  as  the  fact  that 
the  suggested  purchase  of  St.  Thomas, 
should  it  take  place,  would  be  a  broad  viola 
tion  of  the  principles  of  the  '  Monroe  Doc 
trine,'  and  a  very  direct  challenge  to  the 
reaffirmation  by  Congress  of  that  Doc 
trine,  with  particular  respect  to  the  waters 
and,  territory  adjacent  to  the  Panama 
Canal  and  therefore  within  easy  striking 
distance  of  the  same.  It  is  stated  in  well- 
informed  quarters  that  our  foreign  office 
has  lost  no  time  in  directing  its  Ambassa- 


50  AMERICA  FALLEN 

dor  in  Berlin  to  make  the  necessary  official 
inquiry  and,  if  necessary,  follow  it  up  with 
the  strongest  representations  to  the  Ger 
man  Government." 

On  March  24th  the  representatives  of 
the  leading  papers  throughout  the  country 
were  invited  to  meet  the  Secretary  of  State, 
who  wished  to  make  a  communication  on  the 
subject  of  St.  Thomas.  They  found  him 
in  the  very  best  of  humor,  and  he  stated 
that  he  was  pleased  to  tell  them,  that  the 
slight  cloud  which  had  settled  down  upon 
the  mutual  relations  of  the  United  States 
and  Germany  had  been  completely  dis 
pelled  by  the  announcement  of  the  Ger 
man  Government,  that  no  negotiations  of 
any  kind  whatsoever  were  in  progress  for 
the  purchase  of  the  Danish  West  India 
Island  of  St.  Thomas. 

One  week  later  the  early  editions  of  the 
evening  papers  of  March  3ist  displayed  in 
full-face  headlines  the  news,  that  the  Ger- 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    5 1 

man  Government  had  announced  that  it  had 
purchased  St.  Thomas  and  that  it  proposed 
to  make  of  it  one  of  the  strongest  naval 
bases  in  the  world. 

At  the  call  of  the  President,  a  meeting  of 
the  Cabinet  convened  that  night  at  the 
White  House  at  9  P.M.  In  view  of  the 
crisis,  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  arrived 
early,  eager  to  ascertain  from  the  Secretary 
o.f  State  the  facts  of  the  grave  diplomatic 
situation.  From  him  they  learned,  infor 
mally,  that,  having  returned  late  that  after 
noon  from  lecturing  in  the  West  on  "  The 
Perils  of  Militarism,"  he  was  able  to  find 
time  only  for  brief  interviews  with  the  Ger 
man  and  the  British  Ambassadors.  The 
German  Ambassador  had  informed  him 
that  the  dispatch  published  in  the  afternoon 
papers  was  essentially  correct. 

The  President  entered,  seated  himself, 
and  at  once  asked  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
give  the  latest  information  available  from 


52  AMERICA  FALLEN 

his  department.  "  I  have  to  inform  you, 
sir,  that  the  German  Ambassador  practi 
cally  confirms  the  Berlin  dispatch,  and  that, 
in  my  opinion,  the  island  of  St.  Thomas  is 
at  this  hour  the  property  of  the  German 
Government." 

"  In  that  case,  gentlemen,"  said  the 
President,  "  the  situation  is  free  from  any 
ambiguity.  By  the  purchase  of  St.  Thomas, 
in  the  face  of  our  recent  protest,  Germany 
challenges  one  of  the  most  vital  policies  of 
the  United  States.  The  issues  are  clean- 
cut;  either  Germany  must  abrogate  this  sale, 
or  we  must  abandon  the  '  Monroe  Doc 
trine,'  or  the  matter  must  be  submitted  to 
the  test  of  war." 

"  I  am  for  peace,"  said  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy;  u  but  I  believe  that  our  answer 
to  this  affront  should  be  a  sharp  ultimatum 
offering  to  Germany  the  alternative  of  a 
return  of  St.  Thomas  to  Denmark  or — 
war!  Germany  will  never  dare  to  fight  us 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON     53 

over  the  '  Monroe  Doctrine ' ;  for  she 
knows  that  back  of  that  policy  lies  not 
only  our  own  battle-fleet  but  that  of  Great 
Britain  as  well." 

"  Can  the  Secretary  of  State  give  us  any 
definite  assurance  as  to  Great  Britain's  at 
titude?  "  asked  the  President. 

"  I  had  a  conversation  with  the  British 
Ambassador  before  coming  to  this  meet 
ing,  relative  to  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain 
in  the  event  of  hostilities.  He  stated  that 
he  was  advised  by  his  government  that  the 
failure  of  the  United  States  Government 
to  make  any  protest  against  the  violation  of 
Belgian  neutrality,  or  against  the  strewing 
of  mines  on  the  high  seas,  the  bombardment 
of  peaceful  villages  and  undefended  coast 
towns,  and  other  violations  of  the  humani 
tarian  laws  of  war,  had  so  far  estranged  the 
sympathies  of  the  British  nation  that  the 
most  its  government  could  pledge  itself  to, 
in  the  event  of  our  becoming  embroiled  with 


54  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Germany   over   the    '  Monroe    Doctrine/ 
was  an  attitude  of  strict  neutrality." 

Of  all  the  men  around  that  board  the 
President  alone  seemed  to  realize  the  tre 
mendous  significance  of  this  announce 
ment.  He  bowed  his  head  in  deep  thought, 
oblivious,  for  the  time,  to  the  discussion 
among  the  members  as  to  whether  Ger 
many,  exhausted  as  she  must  be  by  the  ter 
rific  struggle  of  the  past  twenty  months, 
would  be  willing  and  able  to  take  up  arms 
almost  before  she  had  laid  them  down. 

Suddenly,  and  with  powerful  emphasis, 
the  President  said: 

"  Gentlemen,  would  it  not  be  more  sane 
and  more  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  the 
Cabinet  if,  instead  of  indulging  in  specula 
tion  as  to  whether  Germany  would  fight,  we 
find  out  definitely  whether  we  are  in  a  posi 
tion  to  do  so  ourselves."  Turning  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  he  said:  "Send  for  the  Chief  of 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    5  5 

Staff  of  the  Army  and  the  President  of  the 
General  Board  of  the  Navy,  and  I  will  ask 
for  their  expert  opinion  as  to  our  prepared 
ness  for  a  conflict  with  the  greatest  mili 
tary  and  second  greatest  naval  power  in 
the  world." 

Immediately  upon  their  entrance  the 
President  said:  "  I  have  asked  your  attend 
ance  here,  so  that  I  may  inform  you  that 
the  Secretary  of  State  has  learned  that  the 
purchase  of  St.  Thomas  by  Germany  has 
been  accomplished,  and  that  the  British 
Government  has  made  it  clear  that,  in  the 
event  of  war  over  this  violation  of  the 
1  Monroe  Doctrine,'  it  can  pledge  itself 
only  to  an  attitude  of  strict  neutrality.  The 
questions  have  arisen,  first,  as  to  whether 
Germany,  in  view  of  her  defeat  in  the  re 
cent  struggle,  would  be  willing  to  risk  an 
other  war;  and,  second,  as  to  whether,  if 
she  did,  our  naval  and  military  forces  are 
in  such  a  condition  of  strength  and  pre- 


56  AMERICA  FALLEN 

paredness  as  to  warrant  our  entertaining  a 
reasonable  hope  of  carrying  it  to  a  suc 
cessful  issue." 

The  first  to  reply  was  the  President  of 
the  General  Board  of  the  Navy :  "  In  a  crisis 
so  serious  as  this  I  presume,  Mr.  President, 
that  you  wish  me  to  speak  with  absolute 
candor  and  without  reserve.  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  Germany  has 
emerged  from  this  war  exhausted  and 
broken  down.  Her  main  fleet  having  re 
mained  within  her  ports  throughout  the 
war,  is  not  only  intact,  but  has  been  in 
creased  by  the  addition  of  several  dread 
noughts  of  the  most  modern  design.  Some 
light  cruisers  also  have  been  added,  to 
gether  with  a  considerable  number  of  sea 
going  destroyers  and  submarines  of  the 
largest  and  latest  type.  So  far  as  her  main 
fleet  is  concerned,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  is  stronger  and  even  better  prepared 
for  battle  than  it  was  at  the  commencement 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    57 

of  the  late  war.     With  the  menace  of  the 
British  fleet  removed,  Germany  is  free  to 
concentrate  on  our  coast  the  whole  strength 
of  her  navy.     The  General  Board  has  rea 
son  to  believe  that  Germany  several  years 
ago  worked  out  a  plan  for  the  invasion  of 
the  United  States,  and  it  is  believed  also 
that,  in  the  event  of  war,  she  would  strike  at 
once  with  all  her  available  forces.    It  would 
be  her  object  to  overwhelm  our  fleet,  ob 
tain  command  of  the  sea,  and  land  an  ex 
peditionary  force,  say,  of  150,000  to  200,- 
ooo  men,  which,  if  our  fleet  were  destroyed, 
she  would  be  able  to  accomplish  within  ten 
or  twelve  days  from  the  commencement  of 
hostilities.    The  decisive  action  would  have 
to  be  fought  between  the  dreadnought  fleets 
of  the  two  nations,  and,  if  we  gave  battle, 
we  should  find  ourselves  opposed  by  a  fight 
ing  line  of  double  the  strength  of  our  own; 
for    Germany    can    oppose    twenty    dread 
noughts  to  our  ten,  and  judging  from  such 


58  AMERICA  FALLEN 

naval  actions  as  were  fought  in  the  late 
war,  in  which  both  the  gunnery  and  the 
seamanship  of  the  Germans  were  excellent, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  with  such 
great  odds  against  us,  we  should  be  de 
feated.  Had  the  Congress  in  past  years 
seen  fit  to  listen  to  the  warnings  of  the 
Board,  and  built  up  a  fleet  sufficient  for  the 
defence  of  the  United  States,  we  should 
have  been  prepared  at  this  hour  to  match 
ship  with  ship  and  gun  with  gun. 

"  The  seriousness  of  the  situation  is  ag 
gravated  by  the  fact  that  all  of  the  ships  of 
our  pre-dreadnought  classes  in  commission 
are  now  distributed  in  the  various  ports  of 
the  Pacific  Coast,  and  therefore  will  not  be 
available  to  meet  that  swift  attack  which 
the  enemy  would  undoubtedly  make  imme 
diately  upon  the  declaration  of  war.  This 
division  of  the  fleet  was  opposed  to  the  very 
first  principles  of  naval  strategy,  and  it 
was  done  against  the  strongest  protest  of 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    59 

this  Board,  backed  by  the  judgment  of 
every  naval  officer  of  the  service.  Mr. 
President,  I  have  answered  your  question, 
and  I  repeat,  first,  that  the  German  Navy  is 
in  a  state  of  the  highest  preparedness  and 
efficiency;  secondly,  that  despite  the  excel 
lence  of  our  ships  and  the  high  quality  of 
our  officers  and  men,  the  relative  weakness 
of  our  navy  and  the  wide  dispersion  of  its 
forces,  to  say  nothing  of  the  shortage  of 
men  and  officers  and  lack  of  adequate  re 
serves,  would  render  a  successful  issue  to 
the  war  practically  impossible." 

The  President  of  the  General  Board  took 
his  seat  amid  a  profound  silence. 

He  was  followed  by  the  Chief  of  Staff 
of  the  Army,  who  said:  "  In  answer  to 
your  first  question,  Mr.  President,  as  to 
whether  Germany,  having  emerged  from  a 
great  war,  would  be  ready  to  undertake  an 
other,  I  have  this  to  say:  that  all  history 
teaches  us  that  a  nation  never  fights  more 


60  AMERICA  FALLEN 

readily  and  valiantly  than  immediately 
after  the  close  of  a  war  in  which  it  was 
involved.  In  proof  of  this  I  would  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  North 
showed  no  signs  of  being  exhausted  by  the 
Civil  War  in  the  sense  of  being  unready 
for  further  military  effort.  On  the  con 
trary,  it  was  the  possession  of  a  great  army 
of  well-trained  and  veteran  soldiers,  amply 
equipped  and  provided  with  all  the  muni 
tions  of  war,  that  enabled  her  to  assume  an 
uncompromising  attitude  to  France  over  the 
Mexican  difficulty.  So  far  from  exhausting 
Russia,  the  unsuccessful  war  which  that 
country  waged  against  Japan  redounded 
greatly  to  her  benefit;  so  much  so,  that 
when  the  recent  war  opened,  the  morale  of 
her  army  was  higher  than  ever  before,  and 
in  equipment,  arms,  and  organization  she 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  great  surprises  of 
that  conflict.  Even  the  little  kingdom  of 
Servia  fought  first  Turkey,  then  Bulgaria, 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON     61 

and  finally,  and  with  scarcely  a  spell  of  rest, 
she  waged  the  most  remarkable  campaign 
of  her  history  against  a  first-class  military 
power. 

"  In  the  event  of  the  probable  defeat  of 
our  fleet  due  to  scattered  forces  and  the 
overwhelming  strength  of  the  enemy,  Ger 
many  would  at  once  commence  the  invasion 
of  our  territory.  And  the  question  which  I 
have  been  called  here  to  answer  is:  what 
would  be  our  chances  of  successfully  resist 
ing  such  an  invasion  and  driving  the  enemy 
back  to  the  sea? 

'  We  have  at  the  present  hour,  within 
the  Continental  United  States,  only  about 
30,000  men  of  the  regular  army,  including 
mobile  troops,  cavalry,  infantry,  and  field 
artillery;  and  we  have  about  16,000  men 
manning  the  coast  defences,  which  is  about 
one-half  the  necessary  number.  In  the 
militia  of  the  United  States,  which  totals 
127,000  men  and  officers-  on  paper,  only 


62  AMERICA  FALLEN 

104,000  are  actually  mustered.  Of  these 
104,000,  only  some  60,000  are  ready  for 
immediate  service  in  the  field;  so  that  our 
total  forces  in  the  United  States  consist  of 
16,000  men  scattered  in  the  coast  defences 
throughout  our  Atlantic,  Gulf,  and  Pacific 
Coast  fortifications,  which  would  not  be 
available  for  service  in  the  field;  30,000 
regulars  and  60,000  militia.  That  is  to 
say,  our  mobile  troops  capable  of  taking 
the  field  number  only  90,000  men,  and 
these,  we  must  remember,  are  scattered 
from  Maine  to  California  and  from  Canada 
to  the  Gulf. 

"  In  the  event  of  invasion  by  Germany  in 
great  force,  with  a  thoroughly  equipped 
army  provided  with  the  full  complement  of 
field-guns,  howitzers,  and  other  necessary 
equipment,  the  first  contingent  of  which 
expeditionary  force  might  readily  amount  to 
150,000  veterans  of  the  late  war,  where 
should  we  stand?  It  would  be  an  optimistic 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    63 

forecast  for  me  to  say  that  we  could  concen 
trate  these  90,000  men  at  any  point  on  the 
Atlantic  Coast  within  thirty  days  of  the 
declaration  of  war.  And  when  the  con 
centration  had  been  made,  the  troops  would 
be  without  properly  trained  artillery  and 
cavalry  organization,  and  without  ammuni 
tion  trains;  they  would  be  hastily  organized 
and  assembled  for  the  first  time  in  large 
bodies;  they  would  be  unprepared  to  act 
effectively  as  an  army;  and  should  these 
troops  be  defeated,  the  country  would  have 
back  of  them  practically  no  reserve  of  men 
and  supplies.  There  is  a  shortage  of  men 
and  guns  in  the  regular  field  artillery;  we 
possess  less  than  half  the  needed  militia 
field  batteries;  and  it  would  require  three 
months  of  training  to  render  what  we  have 
efficient. 

"  Practically  all  of  our  coast  fortifica 
tions  can  be  taken  in  reverse.  Many  of  them 
to-day  are  manned  only  by  a  few  com- 


64  AMERICA  FALLEN 

panics,  and  it  would  be  possible  for  the 
enemy,  by  a  night  landing  and  surprise  at 
tack,  to  capture  "the  fortifications  from  the 
rear,  thus  rendering  it  possible  for  the  en 
emy's  fleet  to  enter  our  harbors  and  lay 
our  seacoast  cities  under  tribute.  With  our 
seacoast  cities  and  fortifications  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  it  would  be  possible 
for  him,  having  at  hand  unlimited  trans 
port,  a  vast  army,  and  complete  equipment, 
to  land  in  the  first  week  of  the  war  suffi 
cient  forces  to  capture  all  the  arsenals,  am 
munition,  supplies,  and  factories  for  the 
manufacture  of  guns,  rifles,  and  powder, 
long  before  our  widely-scattered  mobile 
army  of  30,000  regulars  and  60,000  militia 
could  be  brought  together,  effectively  to 
stay  his  progress.  Modern  wars,  Mr. 
President,  are  machine-made,  and  without 
the  proper  machinery  war  cannot  be  waged. 
You,  Mr.  Secretary  of  State,  have  recently 
affirmed  that  such  is  the  patriotism  of  our 


CABINET  MEETING  AT  WASHINGTON    65 

people,  that  you  could  raise  an  army  of  one 
million  men  between  sun  and  sun;  but  I  tell 
you  that  your  million  men,  without  the 
proper  equipment  of  artillery  and  the  other 
machinery  of  war,  would  be  but  a  mob  one 
million  strong.  Before  I  take  my  seat,  Mr. 
President,  I  shall  make  so  bold  as  to  suggest 
to  you  in  this  hour  of  great  peril  (in  which 
I  see  you  actually  facing  the  very  crisis  and 
conditions  against  which  my  predecessors  in 
office  have  warned  the  country  and  its  Con 
gress  for  many  years  past) ,  that  the  naval, 
and  particularly  the  military  situation,  is 
such  that,  in  his  dealings  with  the  German 
Government,  it  would  be  advisable  that 
your  Secretary  of  State  should  put  on  kid 
gloves  of  the  very  softest  texture." 

And  the  Secretary  of  State  did  so. 

But,  six  hours  after  that  Cabinet  meeting 
closed,  Germany  declared  war  on  the 
United  States, 


VII 

THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES 

REPORT  from  the  Commander  of  the  Ger 
man  Submarine  U-4O  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Imperial  German  Expedi 
tionary  Fleet  at  New  York: 

Flagship  U-4O, 
New  York, 

April   i,    1916. 
Commander-in-Chief,    Imperial    German 

Expeditionary  Fleet,  New  York. 

Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  report  that, 
following  your  instructions,  my  flotilla,  con 
sisting  of  U-4O,  U-4i,  and  U-42,  made 
the  entrance  to  the  Ambrose  Channel, 
Port  of  New  York,  on  the  evening  of 
March  31,  shortly  after  n  P.M.  No 
moon,  sky  overcast.  Proceeded  at  surface 
at  half  speed,  in  line  ahead;  interval  three 

66 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES    67 

hundred  yards;  leading  boats  showing 
hooded  lights  astern  to  preserve  station. 

At  entrance  to  the  Narrows  flotilla  sub 
merged  and  proceeded  at  one-third  speed, 
reaching  New  York  Navy  Yard  at  4:30 
A.M.,  April  i  st. 

I  submit  a  rough  sketch  showing  the 
position  of  the  drydocks  and  of  the 
enemy's  vessels,  and  also  the  course  fol 
lowed  by  the  boats  of  my  flotilla. 

In  a  conference  held  aboard  our  ten 
der  before  reaching  the  American  coast,  I 
arranged  that  U-4O  should  attack  the  sub 
marines  and  destroyers;  that  U-4I  should 
torpedo  the  caisson  gate  of  drydock  A; 
and  that  U-42  should  destroy  the  gate  of 
drydock  B.  Each  boat  was  to  do  such 
other  damage  as  the  conditions  would  per 
mit.  U-4O  and  U-4I  were  to  enter  in  line 
ahead,  and  make  the  circuit  of  the  basin; 
U-42  was  to  back  in  and  take  position  in 
the  middle  of  the  basin. 


68  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Flagship  U-4O  led  the  way  in  at  4:45 
A.M.  Sighted  dreadnought  at  C,  a  battle 
ship  in  drydock  A,  three  submarines 
abreast  at  D,  three  destroyers  at  E,  two 
destroyers  alongside  pier  at  F,  and  a 
battleship  at  G.  On  approaching  the  end 
of  basin,  U-4O  turned  hard  to  port,  stop 
ping  port  motor,  and  as  the  enemy  sub 
marines  and  destroyers  came  on  the  bear 
ing  (See  No.  i  on  plan)  discharged  my 
two  bow  torpedoes.  Secured  effective 
hits.  As  I  swung  around,  brought  stern 
tubes  to  bear  on  two  destroyers  at  Pier  F 
(No.  2)  and  scored  hits  with  two  torpe 
does.  Then  brought  battleship  on  the 
bearing  (No.  3),  and  struck  her  on  port 
bow. 

U-4I,  following  200  yards  astern, 
swung  around  in  my  wake,  and,  upon 
bringing  gate  of  Dock  A  on  the  bearing, 
discharged  stern  tubes  and  made  a  fair 
hit  (No.  4).  To  avoid  being  swept  into 


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SKETCH     SHOWING    COURSE    OF    SUBMARINES    IN    THE 
ATTACK  ON   BROOKLYN  NAVY  YARD. 


70  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  dock  by  rush  of  water,  port  motor  was 
started;  and,  although  U-4I  was  drawn 
back  almost  to  the  entrance,  she  held  her 
own,  and  turning  to  port  followed  me  out 
of  the  basin. 

Looking  through  periscope,  I  could  see 
the  battleship  (since  ascertained  to  be  the 
Michigan),  first  lifted  by  the  stern,  then 
swung  around  and  swept  to  the  inner 
end  of  the  dock.  In  my  opinion,  the  ship 
must  be  badly  wrecked. 

Meanwhile  U-42  had  backed  into  the 
basin,  and  maneuvering  so  as  to  bring  her 
stern  tubes  to  bear,  made  a  fair  hit  on  the 
gate  of  Drydock  B.  Coming  to  the  sur 
face  for  better  vision,  her  commander  re 
ports  that,  over  the  crest  of  the  wave  that 
rushed  into  the  dock,  he  was  able  to  see 
four  submarines  picked  up  from  the  floor 
of  the  dock  and  dashed  against  its  inner 
end.  As  U-42  was  leaving  the  basin,  she 
turned  to  starboard,  bringing  her  stern 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES    71 

tubes  to  bear  on  a  big  dreadnought,  since 
ascertained  to  be  the  Pennsylvania,  that 
was  completing  construction  alongside 
wharf  at  C,  and  struck  her  with  two  tor 
pedoes,  one  amidships  and  another  on  the 
bow.  As  we  passed  down  the  East  River, 
we  could  see  by  the  inclination  of  her  masts 
that  she  was  heeling  rapidly  to  starboard. 
She  is  probably  now  on  the  bottom. 

Our  work  being  thus  completed,  we 
came  to  the  surface,  proceeded  to  the 
upper  bay  and  joined  the  destroyer  flotilla, 
as  directed. 

I  wish  to  commend  to  your  favorable 
attention  the  excellent  work  of  my  own 
crew  and  of  the  commanders  and  crews  of 
U-4I  and  U-42,  who  carried  out  their  in 
structions  with  great  dash  and  precision 
and  with  complete  success. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be 

Yours  obediently, 
R.   SCHLESINGER,   LIEUTENANT,   I.  G.  N. 


72  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Report  from  Commander  W.  Neumann 
of  the  Submarine  U-3O  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  German  Fleet  at  New 
York: 

Flagship  U-3O, 
Limon  Bay, 

Panama  Canal  Zone, 

April  i,  1916. 

Commander-in-Chief,  Imperial  German 
Expeditionary  Fleet,  New  York. 
Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  report,  that 
following  your  instructions,  my  flotilla, 
consisting  of  U-3O,  U-3I,  U-32,  reached 
Limon  Bay,  Panama  Canal  Zone,  at  night 
fall,  March  3ist,  convoyed  by  the  light 
cruiser  Rostock.  At  3  A.M.,  April  ist,  pro 
ceeded  at  the  surface,  under  electric 
motors,  through  the  dredged  entrance  to 
the  canal,  laying  our  course  by  the  canal 
range  lights,  which  we  found  to  be  ex 
cellently  placed.  When  off  Cristobal, 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES    73 

dropped  U-32  for  its  attack  on  enemy  sub 
marine  flotilla  and  proceeded  cautiously. 
It  had  previously  been  arranged  that  U-3O 
should  attack  the  easterly  and  U-3I  the 
westerly  gates.  Sighted  Gatun  locks;  and, 
as  it  was  necessary  to  destroy  both  outer 
gate  and  inner  guard  gate,  U-3O  and  U-3i 
each  fired  the  four  bow  torpedoes  in  quick 
succession.  To  make  sure  of  destroying 
the  inner  (guard)  gates,  we  turned  through 
1 80  degrees  so  as  to  bring  our  stern  tubes 
to  bear,  when  each  boat  fired  two  more 
torpedoes.* 

We  then  rose  to  the  surface,  coupled 
up  engines,  and  drove  ahead  at  18  knots. 
As  I  approached  Cristobal,  saw  several 
columns  of  water  rise  from  the  docks,  in 
dicating  that  U-3i  was  attacking  the 

*The  Panama  Canal  being  wrecked  and  incapa 
ble  of  operation,  the  pre-dreadnought  fleet  of  the 
U.  S.  Navy  was  now  separated  by  14,000  miles  of 
water  from  its  main  fleet. 


74  AMERICA  FALLEN 

enemy  submarine  flotilla  of  five  boats. 
Passing  the  docks,  I  slowed  down,  and 
awaited  U-32,  which  I  presently  saw  re 
turning  full  speed  at  the  surface,  having 
sunk  the  enemy  as  they  lay  moored  at  the 
dock.  Rejoined  light  cruiser  Rostock, 
whose  commander  informed  me  that,  an 
hour  before  dawn,  a  landing  party  had 
surprised  and  captured  the  operating  staff 
of  the  new  long-distance  radio  plant  at 
Colon,  and  after  notifying  Sayville  Station 
in  our  cipher  of  the  capture,  had  de 
stroyed  the  electrical  plant,  and  returned 
to  the  ship. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Yours  obediently, 

W.  NEUMANN,  LIEUTENANT,  I.  G.  N. 

Report  in  cipher  from  long-distance 
naval  radio  station  at  Key  West  (cap 
tured),  by  way  of  Sayville  Station  (cap 
tured),  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES    75 

German     Expeditionary    Fleet    at    New 
York: 

Light  Cruiser,    Graudenz, 

Key  West, 
April  i,  1916. 

Commander-in-Chief,     Imperial     German 
Fleet,  New  York. 

Surprise  attack  by  landing  party  on  Key 
West  successful.  Long-distance  radio 
plant  captured.  Losses  small,  strong  re- 
enforcements  from  transport  now  being 
landed.  Submarine  attack  followed  cap 
ture  of  radio. 

Shall  send  message  in  the  U.  S.  Navy 
secret  code,  to  the  commander-in-chief  of 
the  United  States  North  Atlantic  Fleet  at 
Vera  Cruz  tomorrow.* 

LINK,  CAPTAIN,  I.  G.  N. 

*The  message  sent  by  Captain  Link  was  as  fol 
lows:  "Germany  has  declared  war  on  the  United 
States.  Have  information,  German  advance  fleet  is 
following  southern  course  for  Caribbean;  second 
fleet  on  northern  course  for  our  Atlantic  Coast. 


76  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Wireless  report,  via  Sayville  (captured), 
to  the  Admiralty,  German  Imperial  Navy, 
Berlin. 

Imperial  German  Expeditionary  Fleet, 

New  York, 
8  A.M.,  April   i,  1916. 
ADMIRALTY,  Berlin. 

Favored  by  calm  weather,  our  subma 
rine  attack,  which  took  place  in  the  dusk  of 
early  dawn,  as  planned,  was  everywhere 
successful.  At  Boston,  New  York,  Norfolk, 
Charleston,  Pensacola,  and  Cristobal,  Pan 
ama,  the  surprise  was  so  complete,  that  all 
enemy  destroyers  and  submarines  at  those 
points  were  either  sunk  or  completely  dis- 

Proceed  full  speed  for  Guantanamo  Bay,  Cuba,  to 
take  on  coal  and  supplies.  Find  and  destroy  weaker 
advance  German  fleet.  Send  disabled  ships  to 
Hampton  Roads,  and  proceed  to  Canal  Zone,  Pan 
ama.  Under  cover  of  guns  of  fortifications,  await 
arrival  of  Third  and  Fourth  Divisions  of  Atlantic 
Fleet  from  Pacific,  and  proceed  north  in  full 
strength  to  engage  second  fleet  of  enemy." 


THE  RAID  OF  THE  SUBMARINES    77 

abled.  The  gates  at  the  Atlantic  end  of 
the  Gatun  locks  have  been  torpedoed,  and 
the  Panama  Canal  put  out  of  commission. 
Information  as  to  success  at  Panama 
reached  me  from  landing  force  at  Colon, 
which,  after  sending  messages,  destroyed 
long-distance  radio  station  there.  An 
other  landing  force  captured  long-dis 
tance  radio  at  Key  West  and  sent 
U.  S.  secret  code  message,  directing  U.  S. 
Atlantic  fleet  proceed  Vera  Cruz  to  Guan- 
tanamo.  Information  regarding  success  at 
Boston,  Norfolk,  Charleston,  and  Pensa- 
cola  was  relayed  to  me  by  cruisers  stationed 
along  coast  for  that  purpose.  Sayville  Sta 
tion  captured  early  this  A.M.  by  motorcycle 
corps  from  landing  force  at  New  York. 
My  earlier  report  has  given  particulars  of 
the  successful  landing  and  operations  of  ex 
peditionary  force  at  this  city.  The  situa 
tion  is  developing  very  favorably. 

During  voyage  of  fleet  across  Atlantic, 


78  AMERICA  FALLEN 

sighted  only  few  ships,  whose  wireless  was 
put  out  of  commission  by  our  destroyers 
with  promise  of  full  reparation. 
BUCHNER, 

Commander 'in-ChUft 
Imperial  German  Expeditionary  Fleet. 


VIII 

CAPTURE  OF  NEW  YORK  HARBOR 
DEFENCES 

SHORTLY  before  midnight,  March  31, 
1916,  a  couple  of  destroyers,  there  being 
no  moon,  the  sky  overcast,  and  the  night 
intensely  dark,  sped  swiftly  through  the 
Ambrose  Channel,  and  turning  into  the  old 
Swash  Channel,  cut  the  cable  connecting 
Sandy  Hook  with  New  York.  While  this 
was  being  done,  a  boat  was  sent  ashore 
to  cut  the  telegraph  and  telephone  lines 
between  Sandy  Hook  and  Seabright. 
Soon  afterwards  two  transports  of  mod 
erate  draught  with  all  lights  out,  follow 
ing  the  same  course,  headed  in  towards 
the  Shrewsbury  River  as  far  as  the  depth 
of  water  would  allow.  The  ships'  boats, 

79 


8o  AMERICA  FALLEN 

loaded  with  troops,  were  already  swung 
out  on  the  davits ;  and,  within  half  an  hour, 
a  force  of  1,000  men  was  landed  about 
two  miles  below  the  fort  and  began  its 
silent  march  over  the  sandy  neck  of  the 
isthmus.  As  it  approached  the  buildings 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  fort,  the 
force  was  divided,  one  half  proceeding 
along  the  beach  on  the  ocean  side,  the 
other  half  advancing  along  the  inner 
beach.  At  the  time  agreed  upon,  i :  30 
A.M.,  the  expedition  closed  in  with  a  rush 
upon  the  garrison,  which,  consisting  of 
only  a  few  companies  and  barely  awakened 
by  the  shots  of  the  sentries,  was  quickly 
overpowered.  Before  2  A.  M.  Fort 
Hancock  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy. 

At  1 1  P.M.  on  the  night  of  March  3ist, 
three  large  ships  with  lights  out  moved 
quietly  into  deep  water  anchorage  between 
Far  Rockaway  inlet  and  the  entrance  to 


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ROUTES  FOLLOWED  BY  EXPEDITION  IN  THE  CAPTURE  OF 
NEW    YORK'S    DEFENCES, 


82  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  Ambrose  Channel.  They  were  sur 
rounded  by  a  cordon  of  destroyers.  Had 
any  fisherman's  boat  been  allowed  to  pass 
the  destroyers  (which  it  was  not),  it 
would  have  seen  that  all  of  the  boats  on 
the  transports  were  loaded  with  troops 
and  swung  outboard  ready  for  lowering. 
The  first  boats  to  reach  the  water  con 
tained  detachments  of  expert  linemen 
and  engineers  of  the  German  Imperial 
Army.  They  were  towed  by  a  ship's 
launch  to  the  deserted  beach,  fronting  the 
Brighton  Beach  Hotel,  and,  mounting 
their  bicycles,  they  scattered  and  headed 
for  the  country  lying  back  of  Coney 
Island  and  the  various  beach  resorts.  The 
linemen  cut  all  the  telegraph  and  tele 
phone  lines  leading  to  Brooklyn  and  New 
York;  the  engineers  removed  a  rail  from 
every  trolley  and  elevated  track  leading 
to  the  city.  Part  of  this  detachment  cov 
ered  the  highways  leading  from  the  Beach 


CAPTURE  OF  NEW  YORK  HARBOR    83 

and  turned  back  all  late-returning  auto 
mobiles. 

Meanwhile,  under  the  cover  of  an  im 
penetrable  darkness,  a  force  of  4,000  men 
was  quietly  landed  in  the  ships'  boats, 
which,  in  strings  of  half  a  dozen,  were 
towed  by  steam  launches  to  the  beach  and 
rowed  ashore  through  the  scarcely  per 
ceptible  surf.  The  whole  force  had 
landed  shortly  after  midnight.  Drawn  up 
in  column  of  fours,  it  commenced  a  rapid 
march  on  Fort  Hamilton,  some  six  miles 
distant. 

Realizing  that  there  was  a  bare  chance 
that  no  warning  had  reached  its  garrison 
of  600  men,  the  commander  of  the  expedi 
tion  hurried  forward  a  bicycle  detachment, 
300  strong,  for  a  surprise  attack.  The 
main  body  advanced  by  the  road  which 
skirts  the  shore  of  Gravesend  Bay. 
When  it  was  within  three  miles  of  the 
fort,  the  distant  roll  of  musketry  fire 


84  AMERICA  FALLEN 

showed  that  the  garrison  had  been  warned 
and  was  offering  a  heavy  resistance.  Soon, 
dispatch  riders  from  the  bicycle  force 
came  back  with  the  news  that  it  had  run 
into  a  strong  skirmish  line,  which  the  gar 
rison  had  thrown  out  across  the  Bath 
Beach  road.  The  main  body  of  troops 
was  now  divided,  a  force  of  1,000  being 
sent  across  the  Fort  Hamilton  road  with 
orders  to  advance  from  the  north  as  soon 
as  the  main  attack  was  pressed  home  from 
the  south. 

Despite  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  gar 
rison,  during  which  our  regulars  lived  up 
to  the  finest  traditions  of  the  United 
States  Army,  the  final  rush  of  the  German 
veterans  could  not  be  denied,  and  by  3  :oo 
A.M.  Fort  Hamilton  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy. 

Leaving  half  of  his  force  to  hold  the 
fort  and  entrench  the  position  on  the  land 
side,  the  commander  of  the  expedition. 


CAPTURE  OF  NEW  YORK  HARBOR    85 

with  i, 800  men,  marched  north  by  the 
shore  road  in  the  direction  of  Bay  Ridge. 

Between  two  and  three  on  the  morning 
of  April  ist,  a  strange  thing  happened 
aboard  the  Staten  Island  ferryboat  as  it 
was  about  to  leave  its  landing  at  the  Bat 
tery.  No  sooner  had  the  last  passenger 
for  Manhattan  stepped  ashore  than  the 
gates  were  closed,  and  two  men  entered 
the  pilot  house,  covered  the  captain  with 
their  revolvers,  and  ordered  him  instantly 
to  pull  out  from  the  dock  and  head  for 
Staten  Island. 

"  What  are  you  fellows  after,  any 
way?  "  asked  the  captain.  "  Money?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  We  are  officers  of  the 
German  Naval  Reserve.  War  has  been 
declared  by  Germany  against  the  United 
States;  Forts  Hancock  and  Hamilton  are 
already  in  our  possession;  and,"  with  a 
smile,  "  by  your  kind  permission  we  shall 
make  use  of  your  boat  to  transfer  troops 


86  AMERICA  FALLEN 

for  the  capture  of  Fort  Wadsworth.  You 
will  be  so  good  as  to  hand  the  wheel  over 
to  me  and  take  that  chair,  making  your 
self  as  comfortable  in  mind  and  body  as 
the  exigencies  of  the  present  situation  will 
allow." 

Commander  Schultz,  I.  G.  N.,  took  the 
wheel  and  headed  the  big  ferryboat  for  the 
Narrows.  At  the  entrance  he  swung  to 
port,  and  made  for  the  dock  of  the  Cres 
cent  Athletic  Club,  on  the  Brooklyn  side. 
Not  long  thereafter  was  heard  the  tramp 
of  marching  men  on  the  shore  road,  lead 
ing  from  Fort  Hamilton,  and  in  ten  min 
utes'  time  the  big  ferryboat  had  backed 
away  from  the  pier  with  1,800  men 
aboard.  The  boat  crossed  the  Narrows, 
and,  the  tide  being  at  the  flood,  was  en 
abled  to  push  her  nose  up  to  the  quaran 
tine  landing  at  Staten  Island.  But  no 
sooner  was  she  made  fast  than  the  shore 
line  flashed  with  the  rifle  fire  of  the  Wads- 


CAPTURE  OF  NEW  YORK  HARBOR    87 

worth  garrison,  which  had  thrown  out 
scouting  parties  in  all  directions  in  antici 
pation  of  attack. 

The  ferryboat  backed  quickly  into  mid 
stream,  while  a  flotilla  of  German  destroy 
ers  searched  the  shore  with  a  storm  of 
projectiles  from  their  rapid-fire  and  ma 
chine-guns.  Under  cover  of  this  the  de 
barkation  was  effected.  The  German 
force,  i, 800  strong,  deployed  and  moved 
on  the  fort.  Its  garrison,  consisting  of 
only  400  men,  fought  it  out  stubbornly 
from  building  to  building;  but  against  such 
odds  the  result  was  inevitable,  and  by  4:30 
A.M.  the  last  of  the  great  defensive  works 
of  New  York  Harbor  was  captured. 

And  thus  it  came  about  that  by  day 
break  of  April  ist  the  mighty  seacoast 
guns  and  the  elaborate  system  of  mortar 
batteries,  which  constitute  the  defences  of 
New  York,  being  utterly  unprotected  in 
the  rear,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 


IX 

INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT 

WITH  the  coming  of  the  dawn  of  April 
ist,  the  mantle  of  clouds  which  had  helped 
to  obscure  the  fateful  events  of  the  night 
broke  and  scattered  before  a  fresh  wind 
out  of  the  northwest.  Over  sea  and  land 
and  city  the  sun  shone  brilliantly  in  that 
crystal-clear  atmosphere,  which  is  the  sure 
accompaniment  of  a  northwest  breeze. 

And  as  the  sun  came  up,  there  lifted 
over  the  eastern  horizon  the  van  of  a 
stately  column  of  warships — the  dread 
nought  fleet  of  the  ImperialGermanNavy. 
Into  the  Ambrose  Channel  they  headed, 
led  by  the  Koenig,  flagship  of  Admiral 
Buchner,  commander-in-chief  of  the  Ger 
man  expeditionary  fleet.  Well  off  shore, 
the  Admiral  had  waited  through  the 

88 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT       89 

night  for  the  wireless  message,  telling  him 
that  the  capture  of  the  defences  of  New 
York  had  opened  a  safe  passage  for  his 
fleet  into  the  upper  bay.  The  message 
came,  as  he  knew  it  must,  in  due  course; 
and  immediately  signal  \vas  made  for  the 
fleet  to  steam  at  full  speed  for  the  harbor 
entrance. 

Following  the  flagship,  in  single  column, 
were  the  dreadnoughts  of  the  Koenlg  and 
Kaiser  classes,  making,  with  the  Koenig, 
nine  in  all;  a  division  of  armored  cruisers, 
headed  by  the  Roon;  and  a  division  of 
light  cruisers. 

Thrown  out  fanwise  in  the  van  of  the 
fleet  and  flanking  it  on  each  side  in  two 
parallel  columns  were  the  destroyer  flo 
tillas. 

When  that  stately  line  had  swept 
through  the  Narrows,  signal  was  made 
for  half  speed;  and  after  hugging  the 
easterly  side  of  the  Channel,  the  flagship 


90  AMERICA  FALLEN 

of  each  division  of  dreadnoughts  turned 
eight  points  to  port  and  the  fleet  anchored. 
They  lay  bow  and  stern,  in  two  parallel 
columns,  2,000  yards  apart,  with  the  star 
board  batteries  bearing  on  the  city  of 
New  York. 

Every  ship  was  cleared  for  action;  and 
on  each  the  battle-flags  were  flying. 

Meanwhile  on  shore  the  engineer  com 
panies  of  the  German  troops  in  Forts  Han 
cock,  Hamilton,  and  Wadsworth,  after  se 
lecting  the  points  of  vantage  for  defence 
of  the  landward  approaches,  had  staked 
out  the  trenches,  and  the  Germans  were 
feverishly  digging  and  fortifying  against 
attack.  The  3-inch  rapid-fire  guns  for  pro 
tecting  the  mine  fields  were  unbolted  from 
their  concrete  foundations,  and  remounted 
in  selected  positions  on  hastily-improvised 
platforms.  Also,  the  3-inch  landing  guns 
of  the  fleet  were  brought  ashore  in  the 
ships'  boats  and  wheeled  into  position. 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT      91 

The  garrisons  were  strengthened  by  a 
force  of  2,000  marines,  landed  from  the 
fleet. 

In  short,  within  a  few  hours  of  occupa 
tion,  the  enemy  had  provided  our  coast 
fortifications  with  those  organized  de 
fences,  on  the  land  side,  which,  had  Con 
gress  given  heed  to  the  recommendations 
of  its  military  advisers,  would  have  long 
ago  been  completed  and  would  have 
served  to  hold  the  enemy  at  bay  until  re- 
enforcements  could  have  been  brought  up 
in  sufficient  strength  to  drive  him  back  to 
the  sea. 

Scarcely  had  the  flagship  of  Admiral 
Buchner  dropped  her  anchor,  than  a 
launch,  flying  a  white  flag,  left  the  ship, 
steamed  up  the  harbor,  and  landed  at  the 
Battery.  Captain  Dornfeld  of  the  Admi 
ral's  staff  stepped  ashore,  strode  through 
the  Park  to  a  waiting  automobile,  and  with 
a  slight  nod  of  recognition  to  the  chauf- 


92  AMERTCA  FALLEN 

feur,.took  his  seat,  and  was  driven  swiftly 
to  the  City  Hall.  It  was  early  for  an 
official  call  (9  A.M.),  but  the  emissary 
guessed  rightly  that  the  Mayor  would  be 
in  his  off.ce.  His  name  and  mission  gained 
him  instant  audience. 

Five  minutes  later  a  call  went  out  from 
the  Mayor's  office,  requesting  the  instant 
attendance  of  the  heads  of  New  York's 
great  banking  houses  and  financial  institu 
tions. 

When  that  distinguished  company  had 
gathered  the  Mayor  said:  "Gentlemen, 
it  is  my  painful  duty  to  announce  to  you — 
if  indeed  you  are  not  aware  of  it  already 
— that  the  fortifications  protecting  the  ap 
proaches  to  New  York  are  in  the  hands  of 
a  German  expeditionary  force,  which,  by 
a  surprise  attack  (following  a  declaration 
of  war  by  Germany,  that  reached  the  Sec 
retary  of  State,  at  Washington,  early  this 
morning),  has  obtained  full  possession. 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT      93 

A  fleet  of  the  enemy's  dreadnoughts,  nine 
in  number,  has  entered  and  is  now  cover 
ing  the  city  with  its  guns. 

"  I  hold  in  my  hands  an  ultimatum  from 
the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  fleet, 
which  I  will  read  to  you : 

Imperial  German  Expeditionary  Fleet, 
Upper  Bay,  New  York  Harbor, 

April  i,  1916. 
To  His  HONOR  THE  MAYOR  OF 

NEW  YORK. 

Sir: — I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you 
that  the  German  Government  having  de 
clared  war  on  the  United  States,  a  force 
was  landed  and,  early  this  morning,  cap 
tured  all  the  fortifications  covering  the 
approaches  to  New  York. 

The  fleet  under  my  command,  consisting 
of  nine  of  the  latest  and  most  powerful 
dreadnoughts  of  the  German  Imperial 
Navy,  is  now  anchored  in  the  upper  bay. 


94  AMERICA  FALLEN 

The  heavy  guns  of  the  fleet,  ninety  in  all, 
with  an  extreme  range  of  fifteen  miles, 
command  practically  the  whole  of  Greater 
New  York. 

I  am  instructed  by  my  Government  to 
demand  of  you  a  ransom  of  five  billion 
dollars,  the  bond  for  which,  together  with 
a  first  payment  of  five  hundred  million 
dollars  in  gold,  must  be  delivered  on  board 
the  flagship,  twenty-four  hours  after  the 
delivery  of  this  ultimatum,  that  is  to  say, 
by  9  A.M.  on  April  2d.  Failing  the  receipt 
of  this  at  or  before  the  hour  named  I  shall 
open  fire  on  your  city. 

If,  during  the  twenty-four  hours  covered 
by  the  truce,  any  movement  of  troops, 
either  of  the  regular  army  or  of  the  Na 
tional  Guard,  takes  place,  I  shall  imme 
diately  commence  bombardment. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be 
BUCHNER, 

Commander-in-Chief. 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT       95 

At  the  request  of  the  Mayor,  Captain 
Dornfeld,  bearer  of  the  ultimatum,  with 
drew  to  the  anteroom. 

The  first  to  speak  was  the  Comptroller, 
who  said:  "  Obviously  the  thing  to  be  done 
is  to  ascertain  what  are  the  facts  of  the 
military  and  naval  situation.  We  should 
send  a  request  to  Governor's  Island  for  the 
immediate  attendance  here  of  the  Com 
mander  of  the  Department  of  the 
East." 

"  That  I  have  already  done,"  said  the 
Mayor.  "  He  was  to  return  to-day  from  a 
tour  of  inspection,  and  my  secretary  has 
by  this  time,  doubtless,  met  him.  He 
should  be  with  us  in  a  few  minutes.  Mean 
while,  gentlemen,  what  are  you  prepared 
to  do  in  this  emergency?  " 

"  I  am  satisfied,"  said  one  of  the 
Mayor's  invited  guests,  who  was  famous 
alike  as  a  pacificist  and  philanthropist, 
"  that  this  whole  thing  is  a  colossal  April 


96  AMERICA  FALLEN 

fool's  joke.  It  is  so  preposterous,  in  fact, 
that  it  appeals  to  my  Scotch  sense  of  the 
humorous — or  the  canny — I  scarce  know 

which.  Five  bil Why,  that  is  just 

five  times  as  much  as  my  late  friend  Bis 
marck  demanded  of  the  whole  French 
nation,  to  liquidate  the  cost  of  the  war 
of  1870. 

"  Five  billions,  and  immediate  payment 
in  gold  of  five  hundred  millions !  I  cannot 
believe,  gentlemen,  that  this  outrageous  de 
scent  upon  the  shores  of  a  friendly  nation 
is  made  with  the  consent  of  the  great  Ger 
man  people,  or  by  command  of  my  friend 
the  Kaiser.  Why,  I  well  remember  that  in 
the  course  of  an  intimate  talk  with  him 
at  Pots " 

But  this  interesting  personal  reminis 
cence  was  interrupted  by  the  entrance  of 
Major-General  Adams,  to  whom  the 
Mayor  handed  the  ultimatum,  without  a 
word. 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT      97 

After  he  had  read  the  fateful  document 
the  Mayor  said:  "  General,  we  have  asked 
you  to  come  here  to  tell  us  what  are  the 
military  and  naval  conditions,  and  what 
the  city  can  do  to  escape  this  dilemma  ?  " 

"  Mr.  Mayor,  the  conditions  are  exactly 
as  stated  in  this  paper,  and  New  York 
City  can  do — nothing!  The  country  is 
confronted  with  a  catastrophe  for  which 
the  indifference  and  neglect  of  the  people 
and  its  Congress  are  entirely  to  blame. 
That  the  naval  and  military  defences  of 
the  United  States  were  totally  inadequate 
has  been  known  to  naval  and  military  men 
for  a  generation  past.  Year  after  year 
the  General  Staff  and  the  General  Board 
of  the  Navy  have  warned  the  nation  that 
its  unpreparedness  was  such  that  this  very 
disaster,  which  has  now  fallen  upon  us 
like  a  thunderbolt,  might  come  at  any 
hour. 

"  Briefly,  let  me  tell  you  the  conditions: 


98  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Your  land  defences  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy,  our  battleships  are  at  Vera  Cruz, 
and  the  lesser  units  of  the  Navy,  and  par 
ticularly  the  destroyers  and  submarines, 
were  sunk  in  our  navy  yards  at  daybreak. 
The  German  fleet,  freed  from  any  menace 
from  forts,  submarines,  destroyers,  or  our 
own  battleship  fleet,  is  in  a  position  abso 
lutely  to  destroy  New  York  and  take  its 
own  time  to  do  it.  Our  few  scattered 
regulars  in  the  vicinity  are  concentrating 
and  the  National  Guard  is  assembling  at 
its  armories.  They  might  in  time  recapture 
the  forts — though  even  this  is  doubtful; 
for  I  learn  that  fresh  transports  are  arriv 
ing  every  hour  and  the  landing  of  ree'n- 
forcements  is  proceeding.  Moreover,  ac 
cording  to  this  ultimatum,  any  further  con 
centration  of  our  troops  will  bring  on  the 
bombardment. 

"  Mr.  Mayor,  if  you  wish  to  save  the 
city,   whose   total  value,    I   believe,    Mr. 


INDEMNITY  OR  BOMBARDMENT      99 

Comptroller's  twenty  billion  dollars,  there 
is  but  one  possible  way  to  do  it,  and  that 
is  for  you  gentlemen  to  devise  at  once  the 
ways  and  means  for  a  cash  payment  in 
gold  of  five  hundred  million  dollars  and 
a  guarantee  of  the  balance  of  the  five 
billion  dollars  demanded. " 

The  General  left  the  room.  With  his 
departure  the  spirit  of  optimism  began  to 
prevail  and  ultimately  a  committee  was 
appointed  which  decided  to  make  a  counter 
proposal  of  one  billion,  with  a  cash  pay 
ment  of  fifty  millions  in  gold.  Mean 
while  the  Federal  Government  gave  orders 
that  no  military  demonstration  should 
be  made  for  the  next  twenty-four 
hours. 

This  proposal  was  handed  to  Captain 
Dornfeld,  who  promptly  returned  to  the 
flagship. 

The  afternoon  and  evening  wore  away; 
but  no  answer  came  from  the  German 


ioo  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Admiral.  "  He  is  communicating  with 
Berlin,"  said  the  committee;  "  we  shall 
hear  in  the  morning." 

And  they  did— from  the  throats  of  a 
hundred  guns! 


THE  BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK 

FROM  his  point  of  vantage,  over  700  feet 
in  midair,  Kennedy,  the  attendant  on  the 
observation  platform  of  the  tower  of  the 
Woolworth  Building,  might  have  swept 
his  eye  over  the  grandest  panoramic  view 
of  a  great  city  that  it  has  ever  been 
granted  to  mortal  eye  to  look  upon.  But 
on  that  particular  day,  April  2d,  and  at 
that  particular  hour,  9  A.M.,  he  gazed 
neither  east,  north,  nor  west.  His  face 
was  to  the  south,  and  his  eye  riveted  upon 
a  group  of  dark-gray  ships  that  stretched 
in  two  parallel  lines  across  the  main  ship 
channel  of  the  Upper  Bay,  somewhat  to 
the  north  of  Robbin's  Reef — the  German 
dreadnoughts ! 

He  had  read  in  the  papers  of  the  night 


101 


io2  AMERICA  FALLEN 

before  about  that  absurd  demand  for  five 
billion  dollars,  and  from  the  papers,  also, 
he  knew  that  the  city  had  made  a  counter 
proposal  of  one  billion.  The  morning  ex 
tras  had  told  him  that  no  reply  had  come 
from  the  German  Admiral,  "  who,  doubt 
less,  was  awaiting  instructions  from  Ber 
lin."  He  picked  up  a  pair  of  field  glasses 
(an  investment  of  his  which  had  long  ago 
paid  for  itself,  and  was  now  a  steady 
source  of  income  in  tips  from  country 
visitors  to  the  tower)  and  sought  out  the 
flagship.  Yes,  there  she  was  at  the  head 
of  the  first  line,  with  the  Admiral's  flag  fly 
ing  at  the — but  what  was  that  flash,  keen 
as  the  flash  of  a  mirror  in  the  sun !  Could 
it  be  that — and  there  came  a  crash,  louder 
than  that  of  any  thunderbolt  from  heaven, 
and  he  was  clutching  wildly  at  the  railing, 
as  the  whole  mass  of  the  tower  shuddered, 
and  then  swayed  for  a  few  seconds  like  a 
reed  shaken  by  the  wind. 


MAP  SHOWING  HOW  GUNS  OF  GERMAN  FLEET  COVERCE 
THE    WHOLE    OF    MANHATTAN. 


104  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Driven  by  the  instinct  of  flight,  he 
rushed  around  the  platform  to  the  north 
side,  and,  looking  down,  saw  that  the 
buildings  were  obscured  by  a  cloud  of 
bricks,  dust,  and  broken  terra  cotta,  which 
fell  with  a  prolonged  roar,  like  a  fall  of 
Cyclopean  hail,  upon  the  roofs  and  pave 
ment  far  below.  Another  crash !  Again 
the  tower  staggered  under  the  blow ! 

He  jumped  for  the  elevator.  Yes,  it 
was  intact.  A  few  floors  down  it  stopped. 
He  managed  to  undo  the  door,  crawled 
out,  and  ran  down  the  stairway.  Three 
flights  below  he  stood  dumfounded.  The 
stairs  ended  in  space,  and  through  a  gap 
ing  hole,  where  the  hollow-tile  flooring 
had  been  blasted  entirely  away,  he  saw 
that  the  whole  of  two  stories,  with  their 
floors,  outer  walls,  and  inside  partitions, 
had  been  blown  clear  into  space,  leaving 
the  skeleton  of  the  building — columns, 
floor  beams,  and  braces — stripped  as  clean 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    105 

of  its  brick  and  terra-cotta  walls  as  it  was 
when  the  erecting  gang  had  swung  it  into 
place,  a  few  years  before. 

The  stairs  were  gone;  the  elevator 
shafts  also.  There  was  nothing  for  him 
but  to  return.  If  he  could  not  go  down,  he 
would  go  up.  Odd  to  relate,  fear  was 
giving  place  to  curiosity.  He  heard  the 
roar  of  the  1 2-inch  shells,  as  they  hurtled 
past  the  tower  to  fall  upon  the  doomed 
city,  and  the  observation  platform  would 
enable  him  to  watch  the  stupendous  spec 
tacle  of  its  destruction. 

He  gained  the  platform  just  in  time  to 
see  two  shells,  in  quick  succession,  pass 
through  the  top  stories  of  the  towering 
Equitable  Life  Building,  and  blast  two 
gaping  holes  in  the  south  wall. 

The  next  mark  was  the  beautiful  tower 
that  crowned  the  Municipal  Building. 
The  percussion  fuses  were  functioning 
with  deadly  precision;  nothing  wrong  with 


106  AMERICA  FALLEN 

these  German  shells.  Just  one  hit — and 
the  walls  and  columns  of  the  tower  had 
been  tumbled  in  a  confused  mass  upon  the 
roof  of  the  main  building  and  into  the 
street  below,  leaving  the  twisted  steel 
skeleton  stripped  as  bare  as  the  trees  in 
midwinter. 

And  now  it  dawned  upon  Kennedy  that 
the  Germans  were  shooting  up  the  city 
upon  a  predetermined  plan,  picking  out  the 
principal  buildings  and  putting  a  couple 
of  shots  into  the  upper  stories  of  each.  In 
rapid  succession  the  Singer  Tower,  the 
City  Investing  Building,  the  Adams  Ex 
press,  and  the  new  Western  Union  Build 
ings  were  struck;  and  always  the  gaping 
holes  were  blown  out  hundreds  of  feet  in 
midair,  where  the  ruin  was  visible  to  the 
surging  mass  of  people  that  swarmed  out, 
like  bees  from  a  hive,  into  the  streets 
below. 

And   then   the   din   of   the    alternating 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    107 

boom  of  guns  and  crash  of  bursting  shells 
ceased  as  suddenly  as  it  began.     Kennedy 
turned  his  glasses  on  the  fleet  and  saw  a 
couple     of     hydro-aeroplanes     lifted     by 
cranes  from  the  deck  of  an  auxiliary  ship 
and  placed  in  the  water.     They  rose  as 
they  advanced  on  the  city,  over  which  they 
flew  at  an  altitude  of  1,500  feet.     One  of 
them  swung  off  at  the  Battery  and  began 
to  fly  in  a  circular  path.    The  other  passed 
on  until  it  reached  the  Fifty-ninth  Street 
power  station  of  the  Subway,  above  which 
it  began  to  describe  a  path  of  the  figure 
eight.      Kennedy  turned  his  glasses  upon 
the  fleet.     One  of  the  guns  in  No.  i  tur 
ret  of  the  flagship  was  being  slowly  ele 
vated  until  it  pointed  well  into  the   sky. 
There  was  a  flash— a  long,  droning  hum— 
and  thirty  seconds  later  he  saw  the  shell 
burst  against  a  building  north  of  the  power 
station.     From  the  hydro-aeroplane  above 
there  was  dropped  a  puff  of  white  smoke. 


loS  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Another  flash  and  this  time  the  shell 
burst  somewhat  to  the  south  of  the  station. 
There  followed  two  more  puffs  of  smoke 
from  the  'plane.  A  few  minutes  later 
every  1 2-inch  gun  on  the  ship  rose  to  the 
range  and  flashed  forth  its  86o-pound  shell 
loaded  with  deadly  explosive.  Kennedy 
heard  the  salvo  go  roaring  by  miles  up  in 
the  air,  and,  lo !  the  walls  of  the  great 
power  station  seemed  to  fall  asunder  and 
a  huge  cloud  of  smoke  and  dust  rose  high 
in  the  heavens. 

The  power  station  was  utterly  wrecked, 
and  every  train  in  the  Subway  from  the 
Bronx  to  Brooklyn  stopped  with  its  terror- 
stricken  passengers  in  a  darkness  which 
could  be  felt ! 

Then  the  aviator  sailed  northeast  and 
began  his  fateful  maneuvers  above  the 
Seventy-sixth  Street  power  station  of  the 
Elevated  Railways.  The  same  routine 
followed:  two  or  three  ranging  shots;  the 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    109 

dropping  of  smoke  signals,  which  were 
relayed  by  the  'plane  at  the  Battery  to  the 
ship;  and,  finally,  the  salvo.  In  a  few 
minutes  every  train  on  the  Elevated  was 
out  of  commission. 

North  the  aviator  now  sped,  until  he 
was  hovering  like  a  remorseless  fate  above 
the  Ninety-first  Street  power  station,  which 
runs  the  street-railway  system  of  Man 
hattan.  The  relay  hydro-aeroplane  moved 
up  to  First  Street.  In  ten  minutes'  time  a 
salvo  had  found  its  mark,  and  Manhattan 
was  absolutely  bereft  of  all  means  of 
transportation. 


That  hive  of  busy  workers  known  as 
"  the  downtown  district "  received  its 
quota  of  the  morning  "  rush  "  earlier  than 
usual  on  April  2d.  *  The  optimistic  tone 
assumed  by  the  New  York  press  was  re 
flected  among  the  citizens,  who  were  sat- 


no  AMERICA  FALLEN 

isfied  that  there  would  be  at  least  a  period 
of  negotiations  preceding  any  bombard 
ment,  the  result  of  which,  it  was  not 
doubted,  would  be  a  compromise.  It  was 
curiosity  which  filled  up  the  business  offices 
half  an  hour  earlier  than  usual — and 
curiosity  it  was  that  carried  the  employees 
by  thousands  to  the  roofs  for  a  look  at  the 
Kaiser's  dreadnoughts. 

But  when  that  first  1 2-inch  shell  flashed 
from  the  flagship,  and  went  roaring  over 
head  across  the  skies  to  burst  in  the  Wool- 
worth  Tower,  curiosity  gave  place  to  fear 
and  fear  to  panic.  From  the  roof  to  the 
floors  below  the  fleeing  crowd  of  clerks 
and  stenographers  ran,  shouting  that  the 
Germans  were  bombarding  the  city.  Every 
office  floor  disgorged  its  occupants,  and  a 
growing  crowd  rushed  for  the  elevators 
and  filled  the  stairways.  Out  of  the  en 
trance  of  every  building  there  surged  a  hu 
man  flood,  and  the  waters  of  this  inunda- 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    1 1 1 

tion  met  and  swirled  in  the  side  streets  and 
turned  in  increasing  volume  to  Broad 
way — seeking  a  means  of  quick  escape  by 
the  Subway.  In  a  few  minutes  the  streets 
were  filled  from  building  line  to  build 
ing  line  with  a  frantic  mob,  so  tightly 
jammed  that  all  movement  ceased.  Then, 
as  shell  after  shell  burst  far  above,  huge 
masses  of  masonry  came  hurtling  down 
upon  that  hapless  mob,  killing  and  wound 
ing  the  unfortunates  where  they  stood, 
held  fast.  And  still  the  terror-stricken 
pushed  their  way,  with  that  fatal  accumu 
lation  of  pressure  which  marks  a  fleeing 
mob,  out  of  every  office-building  entrance; 
the  emerging  mass  acting  with  the  cumula 
tive  effect  of  a  hydraulic  ram  upon  the 
already  compacted  mass  in  the  streets. 
Under  that  fatal  pressure  the  weak  went 
down,  ribs  were  crushed  in,  breathing  was 
no  longer  possible.  By  the  hundred,  the 
people  died  where  they  fell. 


ii2  AMERICA  FALLEN 

And  up  from  the  streets  of  the  city 
there  rose  the  prolonged  wail  of  the 
dying,  answered  from  above  by  the 
savage  roar  of  the  flying  shells,  and  the 
swish  and  clatter  of  the  ever-falling 
masonry. 

There  was  a  slight  relief  at  each  Sub 
way  entrance,  into  which  the  waters  of 
that  stricken  human  flood  twisted  and  gur 
gled  like  water  through  a  sink.  And  fur 
ther  relief  was  given  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  mob,  where  such  of  the  police  as  had 
not  been  engulfed,  attacking  from  the  side 
streets,  unloosened  the  fringe  of  the  hor 
ror,  by  reminding  the  terror-stricken  that 
the  Elevated  and  the  ferries  afforded 
other  avenues  of  escape. 

And  then,  as  the  gr^at  power  stations 
fell  beneath  the  salvos  of  the  bombard 
ment,  and  every  wheel  in  New  York's  vast 
system  of  transportation  ceased  to  turn, 
fear  redoubled  aad  frantic  horror  began 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    113 

again  to  crush  the  life  out  of  that  hope- 
abandoned  mob. 

And  just  at  this  very  hour,  as  though  the 
anguish  were  not  complete,  the  lawless 
element  in  the  city  broke  loose  in  every 
quarter  in  a  wild  orgie  of  pillage  and  ar 
son.  From  many  a  resort  of  crime  and 
infamy,  the  gunman,  the  safe-cracker,  and 
all  the  brood  that  hides  from  law  and 
order  streamed  forth  to  gather  in  the 
spoil.  The  police,  aye  the  whole  ten  thou 
sand  of  them,  swept  off  their  feet  by  the 
wild  terror  of  Manhattan's  millions,  were 
unable  to  co-operate  for  effective  work. 
Crime  had  found  its  millennium.  Into  the 
jewelry  stores,  into  the  houses  of  the  rich 
on  Fifth  Avenue  and  the  West  Side,  a 
mob,  armed  and  stopping  at  no  crime  of 
violence,  broke  its  way,  gathering  into  grip 
and  handbag,  or  thrusting  into*  pocket  at 
each  grasp,  the  ransom  of  a  prince ! 

The  terror  of  the  bombardment  swept 


ii4  AMERICA  FALLEN 

through  the  densely  populated  tenement- 
house  district  like  the  rush  of  a  prairie 
fire,  and  at  once  there  arose  in  a  babel  of 
many  tongues  the  universal  cry:  "  To  the 
bridges;  to  the  bridges!"  And  to  the 
bridges  they  swept,  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  Jew,  Italian,  Greek,  and  Russian, 
bearded  rabbi  and  toddling  child,  in  a 
wild  stampede  to  put  the  river  between 
themselves  and  the  bursting  shells.  East 
ward  to  the  bridges  they  surged,  half  a 
million  strong;  the  mob  becoming  denser 
as  it  converged  on  the  various  approaches. 
Overwhelmed  by  that  human  flood, 
vehicular  traffic  stopped.  Roadways  and 
footways,  subway  tracks  and  trolley  tracks, 
all  were  submerged.  The  Manhattan 
Bridge,  among  others,  in  spite  of  its  width 
of  1 20  feet,  was  packed  from  rail  to  rail 
with  the  fleeing  host,  and  when  the  crush 
was  at  its  worst  the  inevitable  happened. 
Somewhere  a  fugitive  slipped,  a  foot  pass- 


BOMBARDMENT  OF  NEW  YORK    1 1 5 

ing  between  the  railroad  ties  of  the  tracks 
— someone  stayed  to  help — more  stum 
bled  ,and  fell.  The  crowd  behind,  in 
furiated  by  the  delay,  made  a  rush,  throw 
ing  dowTn  others  in  the  van.  Soon,  there 
was  a  mass  of  struggling,  cursing  human 
ity  wedged  tight  from  rail  to  rail,  prevent 
ing  down  others  in  the  van.  Soon  there 
thousand  behind  stayed  not  their  rush. 
The  crushing  out  of  life  that  was  happen 
ing  on  lower  Broadway  was  being  repeated 
150  feet  above  the  East  River. 

And  just  then  there  sailed  above  the 
bridge,  high  in  air,  a  German  hydro 
aeroplane.  The  mob  saw  it  and  knew  the 
meaning  of  the  dread  portent.  "  God  in 
Heaven,  they  are  going  to  shell  the 
bridge  !  "  And  then  the  strange  thing  hap 
pened.  The  crowd  stopped  its  convulsive 
struggle.  Except  for  the  down-trodden 
and  dying,  silence  fell  on  that  multitude, 
and,  awestruck,  they  gazed  skyward  at  the 


n6  AMERICA  FALLEN 

harbinger  of  death  and  waited  for  his 
messengers. 

Then  they  came.  A  roar  as  of  an  ex 
press  train  on  the  Elevated,  and  with  a 
blast  of  air  that  swept  down  upon  the  vic 
tims,  a  12-inch  shell  passed  over  the  center 
of  the  span. 

But  before  signaling  to  correct  the 
range,  the  aviator  planed  down  so  as  to 
obtain  a  closer  view  of  the  bridge.  With 
amazement  he  saw  that  it  was"  swarming 
from  end  to  end  with  a  helpless  mass  of 
humanity.  The  purpose  of  the  bombard 
ment  was  to  damage — not  destroy;  and  he 
realized  that  if  the  shells  of  the  Koenig 
should  cut  the  bridge  cables,  50,000  souls 
would  be  hurled  to  their  death  in  the  river 
below ! 

Hastily  he  rose  and  signaled  to  the 
Koenig  to  cease  fire. 


XI 

THE  CAPITULATION  OF  NEW  YORK 

IN  response  to  the  call  of  the  Mayor,  the 
Committee  representing  the  financial  in 
stitutions  of  the  City  met  in  his  office 
promptly  at  9  A.M.  on  April  2d.  A  mem 
ber  was  proposing  that  a  wireless  message 
be  dispatched  to  the  German  Admiral, 
requesting  an  early  answer  to  the  Commit 
tee's  proposal  of  the  day  before,  when  the 
boom  of  a  heavy  explosion  shook  the 
building,  and  the  Mayor,  looking  up 
through  the  southwest  window,  quietly  re 
marked,  "  Gentlemen,  the  answer  has 
come !  "  The  Committee  turned  and  saw 
in  the  fair  white  northern  face  of  the  beau 
tiful  Woolworth  Tower  a  yawning  cavity 
— and,  filling  the  air  below,  a  mass  of 

falling  debris! 

117 


u8  AMERICA  FALLEN 

The  crisis  had  come,  swift  and  appal 
ling;  and  with  a  steady  nerve  and  a  quick- 
thinking  brain  each  man  of  that  Commit 
tee  set  himself  to  meet  it.  There  was 
much  to  do,  and  it  must  be  done  quickly. 
First,  as  to  that  cash  payment  of  half  a 
billion  in  gold.  Was  there  that  much  gold 
in  the  city?  The  question  was  quickly  an 
swered.  In  the  sub-treasury  was  one 
hundred  and  twenty  million  dollars;  in  the 
banks  and  other  depositories,  four  hun 
dred  and  fifty  million  dollars,  more  or  less. 
Yes,  the  cash  payment  could  be  made — 
that  very  day,  if  demanded.  And,  as  for 
the  other  four-and-a-half  billions, — well, 
New  York,  even  with  that  financial  burden 
to  carry,  was  better  than  a  New  York 
thrown  down  by  bombardment  and  rav 
aged  by  a  universal  conflagration. 

And  so,  while  the  cannon  thundered  and 
the  fleeing  citizens  surged  past  the  City 
Hall,  seeking  a  way  of  escape  by  Subway, 


CAPITULATION  OF  NEW  YORK     1 19 

Elevated,  or  Bridge,  those  men  seated  in 
the  private  office  of  the  Mayor  worked 
out  a  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  city. 

At  10  A.M.  a  wireless  message  was 
sent  to  the  fleet  anouncing  the  capitulation 
of  the  city  and  the  start  of  the  Mayor,  the 
Comptroller,  and  Committee  to  confer 
with  the  Admiral  on  board  the  Koenlg. 

Guarded  by  a  cordon  of  police,  who 
with  difficulty  had  fought  their  way  to  the 
City  Hall,  the  Mayor  and  Committee  were 
escorted  to  the  foot  of  Spruce  Street  on  the 
East  River,  where  they  boarded  the  patrol 
boat  of  the  Police  Department  and 
steamed  out  to  the  Upper  Bay. 

The  roar  of  the  bombardment  had 
ceased,  and  save  for  a  few  shell  holes  in 
the  taller  buildings,  there  was  nothing 
to  indicate  that,  for  one  fell  hour,  Hell 
had  vented  its  fury  upon  their  noble  city. 

Arrived  at  the  gangway  of  the  Koenlg, 
the  Mayor  and  his  Committee  were  re- 


120  AMERICA  FALLEN 

ceived  by  the  executive  officer  with  every 
mark  of  distinction,  and  escorted  to  the 
Admiral's  quarters. 

He  was  tall,  blond,  blue-eyed,  affable, 
and  supremely  ceremonious.  Moreover, 
he  spoke  most  excellent  English. 

"  He  was  sensible,"  he  said,  "  of  the 
great  honor  conferred  upon  the  German 
Navy,  upon  the  flagship,  and  upon  himself, 
by  the  presence  on  board  of  the  Mayor  of 
the  great  commercial  metropolis  of  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  attended  by  so 
many  representatives  of  its  leading  finan 
cial  houses. 

"  He  could  have  wished  that  this  meet 
ing  had  taken  place  under  less  distressing 
circumstances;  but — well — war  is  war,  and 
upon  him,  as  one  under  authority,  had 
fallen  the  unhappy  duty  of  bringing  their 
city  to  terms  by  force  of  arms." 

Picking  up  a  document  from  his  table 
he  said:  "The  conditions  on  which  I  am 


CAPITULATION  OF  NEW  YORK     1 2 1 

instructed  to  cease  all  further  naval  at 
tack  on  New  York  are  as  follows : 

"  I.  The  payment  by  the  City  of  New 
York  of  an  indemnity  of  five  billion 
dollars. 

"  II.  The  payment  of  the  first  install 
ment  to  be  made  in  the  form  of  five  hun 
dred  million  dollars  in  gold,  the  same  to  be 
delivered  within  twenty-four  hours  of  the 
signing  of  this  agreement. 

"  III.  The  surrender  of  the  Custom 
House,  New  York,  and  its  occupation  by 
German  forces  until  the  payment  of  the 
balance  of  the  indemnity  has  been  com 
pleted. 

u  IV.  The  surrender  of  the  Chelsea 
steamship  piers  for  the  use  of  the  German 
troopships. 

'  V.  The  surrender  of  all  armories  in 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  for  the  use  cf  the 
troops  of  the  German  Expeditionary 
Force. 


122  AMERICA  FALLEN 

"  It  is  my  wish,  Mr.  Mayor,  that,  for 
the  present,  at  least,  you  continue  to  ex 
ercise  full  civil  control  of  New  York,  un 
der  the  rules  of  military  occupation  of  my 
government." 

After  very  brief  conference  the  articles 
of  capitulation  were  duly  signed,  and 
shortly  thereafter  the  Police  Department 
launch  cast  off  from  the  gangway  of  the 
Koenig  and  headed  for  Manhattan. 

Silent  and  preoccupied,  the  group  of 
men  on  her  upper  deck  gazed  wistfully 
upon  the  stately  buildings  of  lower  Man 
hattan,  which  lifted  their  shell-scarred 
summits  far  into  the  blue  of  that  sunlit 
April  day. 

"  Well,"  said  one  of  the  party,  "  such 
are  the  caprices  of  Fortune." 

"Nay, sir,"  sharply  retorted  the  Mayor, 
"  say  rather  that  such  are  the  fruits  of 
folly  and  criminal  neglect!  " 


CAPITULATION  OF  NEW  YORK     1 23 

That  afternoon,  closed  and  heavily 
guarded  motor  vans  began  to  make  their 
way  from  the  banks  of  New  York  City 
to  a  German  transport  at  Pier  No.  i,  the 
Battery;  and  before  noon  of  the  day  fol 
lowing  five  hundred  million  dollars,  or 
about  1,000  tons,  in  gold,  had  been  put 
aboard,  and  the  vessel,  under  heavy  naval 
escort,  had  sailed  for  a  German  port. 


XII 

THE  SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON 

THE  combined  sea  and  land  expedition  for 
the  capture  of  Boston  by  a  surprise  attack 
consisted  of  a  division  of  dreadnoughts, 
some  destroyers,  a  flotilla  of  six  sub 
marines,  and  a  landing  force  of  5,000 
picked  veterans  of  the  European  war. 

The  defences  of  Boston  consisted  of 
seven  forts.  Two  of  these,  Fort  Heath 
and  Fort  Banks,  were  built  on  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  peninsula  which  incloses  Bos 
ton  Harbor  on  the  north.  The  others 
were  advantageously  placed  on  five  of  the 
islands  which  cover  the  approaches  to  the 
harbor.  Three  of  these,  Forts  Standish, 
Warren,  and  Revere,  formed  the  outer  line 
of  defence;  the  inner  line  consisted  of  Forts 

Strong  and  Andrews.  They  were  heavily 
124 


SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON          125 

armed  with  10-  and  1 2-inch  rifles — the  lat 
ter  having  an  extreme  range  of  13,000 
yards.  There  were  also  some  1 2-inch 
mortar  batteries  of  approximately  the  same 
range. 

Although  the  range  exceeded  the  effec 
tive  fighting  range  of  any  existing  battle 
ships  at  the  time  the  forts  were  built,  it  was 
far  short  of  the  range  of  naval  guns  in  the 
year  1916.  Moreover,  the  Boston  forts, 
like  those  defending  New  York,  were  open 
to  attack  from  the  rear.  All  of  the  guns 
and  mortars  pointed  seaward.  Further 
more,  thanks  to  the  parsimony  of  Congress, 
the  whole  of  these  defences  were  under 
manned,  there  being  only  1,100  men  dis 
tributed  among  the  seven  forts. 

The  expedition  timed  its  approach  so 
as  to  be  within  a  few  hours'  steaming  of 
the  Massachusetts  coast  at  sundown,  March 
31,  where  it  divided,  the  four  transports 
carrying  5,000  men  making  for  Salem, 


126  AMERICA  FALLEN 

and  the  warships  moving  on  Boston.  The 
submarines,  having  filled  their  fuel  tanks 
from  the  tender,  pushed  forward  until  they 
reached  the  outer  defences,  when  they  sub 
merged  and,  under  cover  of  the  dark, 
worked  their  way  carefully  through  the 
channels,  reaching  Boston  Navy  Yard  in 
the  early  dawn.  Here,  at  4:30  A.M.,  they 
torpedoed  and  sunk  every  ship  in  the  yard, 
sending  to  the  bottom  the  armored  cruiser 
Brooklyn,  the  scout  cruisers  Chester  and 
Salem,  the  cruiser  Chicago,  the  gunboat 
Castine,  and  two  or  three  smaller  units. 
The  submarines  then  submerged  to  the  bot 
tom  and  went  to  sleep,  awaiting  develop 
ments. 

The  transports,  favored  by  an  unusu 
ally  dark  night,  there  being  no  moon, 
reached  Salem  undetected.  Debarkation 
commenced  at  2  A.M.  The  first  troops  to 
be  landed  consisted  of  a  bicycle  corps,  1,500 
strong,  which  immediately  made  a  dash  for 


SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON          127 

Boston,  twelve  miles  distant.  Five  hun 
dred  of  these  followed  the  shore  road,  and 
at  4  A.M.  rushed  the  garrison,  200  strong, 
of  Forts  Heath  and  Banks,  which  they  took 
in  reverse.  The  rest  of  the  force,  1,000 
strong,  entered  Boston,  one  half  capturing 
the  Navy  Yard,  while  the  other,  crossing 
the  Charles  River,  seized  the  large  motor 
fishing  boats  and  other  motor  craft  at  the 
docks  and  took  them  over  to  the  Navy 
Yard. 

Meanwhile  the  debarkation  of  the  bal 
ance  of  the  expeditionary  force,  3,500 
strong,  was  being  effected.  The  troops 
landed  in  light  marching  order,  with  two 
days'  rations  in  their  knapsacks,  and  ac 
companied  by  strong  batteries  of  machine- 
guns.  By  daylight  the  column  was  on  the 
march,  and  at  8  A.M.,  after  a  sharp  engage 
ment  in  the  suburbs,  and  almost  within 
sight  of  Bunker  Hill,  with  such  of  the 
militia  as  it  was  possible  hastily  to  assem- 


128  AMERICA  FALLEN 

ble,  the  enemy  moved  into  the  Navy  Yard 
and  began  to  embark  on  the  miscellaneous 
craft  which  had  been  gathered  there. 

Meanwhile  the  German  dreadnoughts 
had  moved  in  on  the  outer  line  of  seacoast 
defences.  They  anchored  at  a  distance  of 
17,000  yards,  or  between  2,000  and  3,000 
yards  beyond  the  extreme  range  to  which 
the  guns  of  the  forts  could  carry.  Ac 
companying  the  fleet  was  an  aeroplane 
tender,  and  by  the  time  the  ships  were  ready 
to  open  fire  three  aeroplanes  were  circling 
above  the  outer  forts — Standish,  Warren, 
and  Revere. 

The  calm  sea  and  clear  weather  which 
favored  the  operations  of  April  ist  along 
the  Atlantic  Coast  prevailed  at  Boston. 
Vision  was  exceptionally  good,  and  the 
German  gunners,  being  outside  the  range 
of  the  forts  and  quite  unmolested,  and 
being  guided  by  aeroplane  observation, 
quickly  got  on  the  target,  and  placed  their 


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MAP  SHOWING  HOW  GERMANS  BOMBARDED  BOSTON   FORT 

FROM    A    POSITION    OUTSIDE    THE    RANGE. 

pF    THEIR    GUN§. 


130  AMERICA  FALLEN 

high  explosive  n-inch  shells  with  deadly 
accuracy.  After  half  an  hour  of  bombard 
ment  *a  division  of  destroyers  was  sent  in  to 
draw  the  fire  of  the  forts  by  steaming 
swiftly  across  their  front  at  10,000  yards' 
range.  There  was  a  vigorous  reply  from 
Forts  Warren,  Strong,  and  Andrews,  but 
the  fire  from  Forts  Standish  and  Revere  was 
feeble.  The  bombardment  continued  for 
another  hour,  the  fire  being  directed  chiefly 
at  the  inner  forts. 

It  was  now  9  A.M.  and  shortly  thereafter 
one  of  the  aeroplanes  returned  to  report 
that  the  motor-boat  fleet,  carrying  the  land 
forces,  had  been  descried  moving  down  the 
bay  to  take  the  forts  in  reverse.  The  signal 
"  cease  fire  "  was  made  from  the  flagship, 
and  the  garrisons,  already  decimated  and 
shaken  up  by  shell  fire,  faced  about  to  meet 
the  new  attack. 

The  motor-boat  fleet  moved  upon  the 
inner  forts  (Strong  and  Andrews)  in  two 


SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON          131 

parallel  columns,  flanked  on  each  wing  by 
three  submarines,  which,  moving  awash, 
had  broken  out  the  3-inch  guns  with  which 
they  were  armed.  Under  the  cover  of  these 
guns,  which  swept  the  landing  with  a  storm 
of  shells,  the  German  troops  were  landed, 
and  the  garrison,  consisting  in  each  case  of 
only  four  companies,  after  a  spirited  re 
sistance,  was  forced  to  surrender.  The  ex 
pedition  then  moved  on  the  three  outer 
forts,  and  as  there  was  only  a  single 
company  in  each,  and  half  of  these 
had  been  killed  or  wounded  by  the 
bombardment,  they  offered  little  or  no 
resistance. 

As  soon  as  the  Admiral  saw  the  German 
flag  flying  over  the  forts,  he  moved  into  a 
position  from  which  he  could  cover  the 
whole  of  Boston  with  his  guns.  A  launch, 
bearing  a  flag  of  truce,  left  the  flagship, 
and  within  half  an  hour  the  city  was  con 
fronted  with  an  ultimatum,  demanding  the 


132  AMERICA  FALLEN 

payment  of  three  billion  dollars,  two  hun 
dred  millions  of  which  was  to  be  delivered 
aboard  ship  within  twenty-four  hours.  The 
custom  house  and  the  armories  were  to  be 
occupied  immediately  by  German  troops. 
The  Mayor  was  to  remain  in  civil  control, 
under  the  rules  of  German  military  occupa 
tion.  Finally,  the  ultimatum  stated  that  if 
any  movement  of  the  regular  or  militia 
forces,  having  in  view  the  recapture  of  Bos 
ton,  took  place,  the  fleet  would  open  on  the 
city  with  all  its  guns. 

The  Mayor  called  a  meeting  of  the  lead 
ing  bankers  and  an  effort  was  made  to  ob 
tain  a  mitigation  of  the  terms.  The  truce 
was  to  expire  at  2  P.M.,  April  2d;  but  on 
learning  that  the  bombardment  of  New 
York  had  begun,  the  city  at  once  capit 
ulated. 

That  night  one  of  the  transports  was 
sent  round  from  Salem,  and  by  noon  of 
April  3d  she  had  sailed  for  a  German  port 


SURRENDER  OF  BOSTON          133 

with  two  hundred  million  dollars  in  her 
hold. 

On  the  afternoon  of  April  2d  two  Ger 
man  armored  cruisers  and  two  light  cruis 
ers  arrived  at  Boston  from  New  York,  and 
that  evening  the  German  Admiral,  leaving 
these  ships,  some  destroyers,  and  the  sub 
marines  to  cover  the  city,  sailed  with  his 
division  of  dreadnoughts  for  New  York. 

On  the  evening  of  April  3d  the  dread 
nought  fleet  of  Admiral  Buchner  put  to  sea 
and  picked  up  the  division  from  Boston, 
and  the  fleet  of  thirteen  dreadnoughts 
sailed  for  the  Caribbean. 


XIII 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON 

AT  intervals  during  the  morning  of  March 
3  ist  four  large  German  merchant  ships, 
duly  consigned  to  Baltimore  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  rushing  to  that  port  certain  or 
ders  for  German  goods  which  had  been 
delayed  by  the  war,  passed  in  through  the 
Capes,  reported  to  the  signal  station,  and 
proceeded  up  the  Chesapeake.  In  the  upper 
reaches  of  the  Bay,  after  sundown,  they 
closed  up;  and  about  midnight  they  an 
chored  well  awray  from  the  course  followed 
by  shipping,  and  abreast  a  fine  stretch  of 
sandy  beach  which  lines  the  western  shore 
of  the  Bay,  a  few  miles  below  Annapolis. 
The  sky  was  clouded  and  the  night  intensely 
dark. 

Two  hours  before  midnight  commenced 
134 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       135 

the  debarkation  from  these  ships  of  a  force 
of  5,000  picked  bicycle  troops.  Accom 
panying  them  were  several  batteries  of 
machine-guns,  bicycle-mounted  and  capable 
of  being  quickly  assembled.  The  first  com 
pany  to  land  was  told  off  to  cut  all  tele 
graph,  telephone,  and  railway  lines  leading 
to  Washington.  A  small  detachment  from 
this  company,  composed  of  fast  riders, — 
more  than  one  of  whom,  in  past  years,  had 
come  over  for  the  international  races  in 
Madison  Square, — pushed  on  at  full  speed 
for  Washington,  with  instructions  to  mine 
the  tall  towers  of  the  Arlington  long-dis 
tance  radio  station,  lay  the  wires,  and  be 
prepared  to  wreck  the  plant  as  soon  as  the 
expeditionary  force  reached  the  city. 

Except  for  the  machine-guns  (each  of 
which  was  carried  between  a  pair  of  tan 
dems)  the  whole  force  was  in  the  lightest 
possible  marching  order,  each  man  carrying 
only  two  days'  rations  and  an  extra  supply 


136  AMERICA  FALLEN 

of  ammunition.  As  soon  as  the  troops 
landed,  lamps  were  lit  and  they  moved  off 
silently  into  the  night.  By  2  130  A.M.  the 
whole  expedition  was  ashore.  Just  before 
daybreak  the  bulk  of  the  raiding  force, 
assembled  on  several  roads  leading  into 
Washington,  made  its  rush  for  the  capture 
of  the  city. 

Carefully  planned  though  it  was,  the  sur 
prise  was  not  complete.  Willard  Bronson, 
a  correspondent  recently  returned  from 
service  at  the  front  with  the  German  army, 
had  run  out  on  his  motorcycle  on  the  even 
ing  of  March  3ist,  to  visit  an  old  friend 
who  lived  some  fifteen  miles,  or  halfway 
from  Washington,  on  the  Annapolis  road. 
There  was  much  to  tell;  and  it  was  be 
tween  2  and  3  A.M.  when  he  left  the 
house  and  brought  his  machine  around 
from  the  stable.  He  was  just  about  to 
light  up,  when  he  paused,  match  in  hand, 
as  the  glare  of  a  hundred  lights  shone 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       137 

down  the  road,  and  the  van  of  the  raid 
ing  force  swept  noiselessly  by  on  the  other 
side  of  the  heavy  privet  hedge  separating 
the  lawn  from  the  road. 

"  German  mounted  bicycle  troops!  Im 
possible;  absurd!  "  But  Bronson  had  been 
trained  to  clear  thinking  and  quick  action. 
There  flashed  into  his  mind  the  startling 
headlines  of  the  afternoon  papers,  announc 
ing  the  purchase  of  St.  Thomas. 

But  this  would  be  war  before  war  was 
declared.  True;  yet  there  was  the  prece 
dent  of  Japan's  attack  on  Port  Arthur. 

Bronson  slipped  quietly  back  to  the  house 
and  burst  in  upon  his  astonished  host: 
"  Quick,  tell  me,  is  there  any  road  by  which 
I  can  cut  around  into  the  main  road — any 
path,  cattle-track,  anything  on  which  a 
wheel  can  turn?  Don't  stare  at  me  like 
that,  man  !  Here,  come  to  the  window — see 
those  lights  sweeping  by  ?  It  is  the  German 
army  moving  on  Washington.  I  must  warn 


138  AMERICA  FALLEN 

them — the  Government — or  they  will  make 
a  bag  of  the  whole  Cabinet  before  dawn !  " 

"Yes;  two  fields  away — good  grassland 
— you  can  ride — there  is  a  country  road 
which  intersects  the  main  road  two  miles 
from  here;  but  you  must  ride  like  the  very 
devil!" 

With  lamp  alight  he  swept  across  the 
first  field — good;  the  gate  was  open.  The 
gate  to  the  road  was  shut — cruel  delay, 
with  the  fate  of  a  nation  hanging  on  the 
chance  of  a  minute ! 

Again  he  swung  into  the  saddle,  and, 
thank  God,  the  searchlight  beam  of  his 
lamp  showed,  straight  and  fair,  a  smooth, 
though  grass-grown,  lane.  Wide  went  the 
throttle,  and,  ah!  how  he  would  have  liked 
to  open  the  muffler  too.  Thirty,  forty,  fifty 
miles  an  hour.  The  road  swung  gently 
away  to  the  left.  Now  it  swung  back 
again,  and  there,  abreast  of  him,  through 
the  trees  and  across  the  fields,  he  could  see 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       139 

the  head  of  the  raiding  column.  The  lane 
and  the  road  were  convergent.  And  now 
he  noticed  that  the  leading  lights  were 
stringing  out.  He  was  discovered;  the 
purr  of  his  motor  and  the  gleam  of  his 
lamp  had  been  noted,  and  they  were  sprint 
ing  to  head  him  off.  Open  went  his  muffler, 
and,  head  down,  he,  the  modern  Paul 
Revere,  swept  into  the  main  road,  just  one 
hundred  yards  ahead  of  the  leading  troops. 
With  brake  hard  down  and  machine  skid 
ding  over  to  the  further  ditch,  fortune  fa 
vored  his  desperate  dash,  and  he  straight 
ened  out  for  Washington. 

Behind,  he  heard  the  clash  of  falling  bi 
cycles.  "  Ah  !  they  have  jumped  from  their 
machines  to  take  a  long  shot " — and  above 
the  roar  of  his  motor  he  heard  the  crackle 
of  rifle  fire.  Zip,  zip,  zip,  the  bullets  sang. 
"  I  am  going  a  good  mile  a  minute  now — 

they'll  never  get  me— Oh,  H !  "    Like 

a  blow  from  a  baseball  bat  it  struck  him — < 


1 40  AMERICA  FALLEN 

right  leg — in  the  calf.  "  Too  bad — but  I 
can  see  the  lights  of  Washington — only  a 
few  minutes,  and  I  shall  be  at  the  tele 
phone  exchange.  God,  how  it  stings!" 
He  reached  down  and  his  hand  felt  the 
gush  of  the  warm  blood. 


The  routine  of  work  for  the  night  force 
at  the  central  telephone  exchange  at  Wash 
ington,  D.  C.,  was  suddenly  broken  at  3  130 
A.M.,  April  ist,  when  the  door  was  labori 
ously  opened  and  a  man,  on  all  fours, 
crawled  into  the  room,  dragging  after  him 
a  broken  leg  that  left  a  smear  of  blood  on 
the  floor.  Propping  himself  on  his  hands, 
he  raised  his  face,  white  and  twitching,  and 
shouted  in  a  burst  of  staccato  sentences: 
"  The  Germans  are  coming — landed  at  An 
napolis — here  in  half  hour — warn  members 
of  Cabinet  escape  Union  Station — tell 
garage  send  taxis  each  house — quick,  quick, 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       141 

for  the  love  of  our  country — the  Presi 
dent  first,  then  the " 

And  with  a  groan  he  crumpled  up  and 
lay  as  though  dead  before  the  gaping  night 
force. 

Then  the  spell  broke — they  rushed  to  the 
fallen  man.  "  Why,  it's  Bronson,  the  war 
correspondent,"  said  Murphy,  "  and  if 
Bronson  says  the  Germans  are  coming,  com 
ing  they  are.  For  God's  sake  get  busy." 

And  they  did  so  to  such  good  effect  that, 
as  the  enemy  swept  into  the  city  in  the  early 
dzvvn,  there  pulled  out  of  the  Union  Sta 
tic  n,  for  Philadelphia,  an  express  train, 
bearing  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  and 
their  families,  together  with  the  ranking 
official  in  the  Departments  of  War,  the 
Navy,  and  Finance. 

The  seizure  of  the  city  was  accom 
plished  with  characteristic  precision  and 
dispatch.  Every  company  and  detachment 
had  its  objective.  The  advance  force,  1,200 


142  AMERICA  FALLEN 

strong,  with  20  machine-guns,  pushed  on  to 
the  Aqueduct  bridge,  crossed  the  Potomac, 
and  advanced  on  Fort  Myer  from  the 
north. 

Another  force  of  equal  strength  made 
for  the  Long  Bridge,  crossed,  and  ap 
proached  the  fort  from  the  southeast. 

Meanwhile  the  balance  of  the  expedition 
as  it  reached  the  city  took  possession  of 
the  principal  Government  buildings.  Five 
companies  seized  the  Treasury;  five  com 
panies  the  State,  War,  and  Navy  building; 
three  companies  took  possession  of  the 
Capitol;  and  a  detachment  seized  the  Arm 
ory,  capturing  several  machine-guns.  Other 
detachments  seized  the  banks,  the  Union 
Station,  the  Telephone  Exchange,  and  the 
offices  of  the  Postal  Telegraph  and  Western 
Union.  The  balance  of  the  troops,  1,000 
strong,  moved  on  the  Washington  Bar 
racks. 

Among  the  warnings  sent  out  when  Bron- 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       143 

son,  the  war  correspondent,  crawled  into 
the  Telephone  Exchange,  were  two  to  the 
garrisons  at  Fort  Myer  and  Washington 
Barracks. 

At  the  former  the  force  consisted  of 
400  cavalry  and  400  field  artillery  with 
several  batteries  of  field-guns.  The  garrison 
of  Washington  Barracks  consisted  of  about 
600  men.  The  commanders  of  each  post 
decided  to  unite  their  forces  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Potomac,  and  the  Fort  Myer 
garrison  at  once  moved  out,  a  cavalry  screen 
being  thrown  forward  to  seize  the  Long 
Bridge.  About  a  mile  from  the  bridge  they 
ran  into  a  strong  skirmish  line  of  the  second 
German  force,  and  fell  back  on  their  main 
body,  which  hastily  entrenched  itself,  the 
field  batteries  moving  to  take  up  a  position 
to  the  rear.  While  the  batteries  were  tak 
ing  position,  and  before  all  the  guns  were 
unlimbered,  the  first  German  force,  which, 
finding  Fort  Myer  evacuated,  had  pushed 


H4  AMERICA  FALLEN 

on  with  all  speed,  came  up  in  the  rear  and 
opened  a  murderous  machine-gun  and  rifle 
fire. 

The  cavalry  wheeled  and  charged 
straight  at  the  guns.  Such  was  the  im 
petus  of  their  onrush,  that  those  who  sur 
vived  that  decimating  fire,  some  200  in  all, 
broke  through  the  first  and  second  line  be 
fore  they  were  brought  down.  Those  of 
the  guns  which  could  be  brought  into  action 
swept  the  enemy  with  shrapnel  at  close 
range.  Such  an  unequal  contest  could  have 
but  one  issue.  The  gun  detachments  with 
ered  under  the  pitiless  hail  of  German  bul 
lets,  and  when  the  enemy  charged  home, 
not  a  man  was  on  his  feet  to  dispute  posses 
sion  of  the  guns. 

Leaving  their  own  and  the  American 
wounded  to  be  cared  for  by  the  stretcher- 
bearers  of  Fort  Myer  garrison,  the  Ger 
mans,  now  some  2,000  strong,  mounted 
and  moved  back  to  the  city.  Here,  on  learn- 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       145 

ing  from  dispatch  riders  that  the  force  sent 
to  the  Washington  Barracks  was  heavily 
engaged  with  the  garrison  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  steamboat  wharves,  they  swung 
around  to  the  south  and  took  the  enemy  on 
the  right  flank  and  rear. 

An  hour  later  the  Barracks  and  the  Army 
War  College  were  captured,  and  by  noon  of 
April  ist,  the  small  American  forces  hav 
ing  been  annihilated  or  captured,  Wash 
ington  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Ger 
mans. 

At  dawn  of  the  same  day,  the  German 
submarines,  having  passed  in  through  the 
Capes  by  night,  sank  or  destroyed  every 
warship  in  the  Norfolk  yards,  and  at  the 
yards  of  the  Newport  News  Shipbuilding 
Company.  Before  the  Germans  had  taken 
possession  of  Washington,  the  news  was 
flashed  from  Philadelphia  that  a  similar 
submarine  raid  had  resulted  in  the  sinking 
of  the  South  Carolina  and  of  the  seven  bat- 


146  AMERICA  FALLEN 

tleships  in  reserve  and  in  ordinary,  at  the 
League  Island  Yard,  namely,  the  Alabama, 
Illinois,  Kearsarge,  Kentucky,  Missouri, 
Ohio,  and  Wisconsin. 

At  noon,  April  ist,  the  signal  stations  at 
Cape  Charles  and  Cape  Henry  reported 
that  a  fleet  of  transports,  flying  the 
German  flag,  was  converging  on  the 
entrance. 

The  rifle  and  mortar  batteries  at  Fort 
Monroe  were  instantly  manned,  and  to  the 
amazement  of  all  but  the  few  who  knew  the 
limitations  of  range,  the  fleet,  in  line  ahead, 
steamed  boldly  for  that  forbidden  ground, 
the  main  entrance  to  the  Chesapeake,  lying 
to  the  south  of  the  middle  shoal.  As  the 
fleet  reached  the,  entrance  it  slowed  down, 
and  using  the  lead,  crept  in,  hugging  closely 
the  southerly  edge  of  the  shoal. 

And  then  Fort  Monroe  spoke.  From 
her  batteries  there  roared  forth  a  salvo, 
which,  twenty  seconds  later,  struck  the 


CAPTURE  OF  WASHINGTON       147 

water  13,000  yards  away,  sending  up  huge 
geysers  of  water.  The  projectiles,  ricochet- 
ting  in  great  sweeping  arcs,  finally  died 
down  into  the  water  some  thousands  of 
yards  beyond. 

Then  came  the  mortar-battery  salvo. 
Lifting  their  stubby  barrels  to  an  angle  of 
45  degrees  they  shot  their  1 2-inch  shells 
skyward.  Several  miles  they  rose,  and  just 
one  minute  after  the  discharge  four 
columns  of  water  rose  about  1,000  yards 
from  the  ships. 

"  I  knew  it,"  said  the  captain  of  the  lead 
ing  troopship,  an  officer  of  the  German 
naval  reserve;  "  18,000  yards  is  the  ex 
treme  range  of  those  bateries,  and  a  study 
of  the  chart  convinced  me  that  we  could 
just  squeeze  through." 

And  next  day,  April  3d,  5,000  German 
infantry,  together  with  the  proper  quota 
of  engineer  corps,  field  batteries,  signal  and 
medical  corps,  and  the  full  equipment  for  a 


148  AMERICA  FALLEN 

force  of   10,000  men,  were  landed  below 
Annapolis  and  moved  on  to  Washington. 

And  on  April  3d  two  events  of  the  first 
magnitude  occurred:  the  President  of  the 
United  States  announced  that,  acting  on  the 
advice  of  his  military  advisers,  he  had  di 
rected  that  the  seat  of  Government  be 
moved  to  Pittsburg;  and  to  Pittsburg  came 
a  proposal  from  Germany  to  cease  all  mili 
tary  operations,  upon  the  agreement  by  the 
United  States  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  twelve 
billion  dollars,  an  advance  payment  of  one 
billion  dollars  in  gold  to  be  made  on  the  day 
the  indemnity  bond  was  signed. 


XIV 

SEEKING   THE    GERMAN   FLEET 

How  it  came  about  that  I  witnessed  the 
greatest  naval  battle  of  all  history  from 
the  fire-control  platform  of  the  flagship 
Oklahoma  is  readily  explained.  In  the 
previous  year  I  had  offered  for  the  consid 
eration  of  the  Navy  Department  a  system 
of  "  director  firing,"  which  had  been  re 
jected  on  the  ground  that  its  mechanism 
was  too  delicate  to  stand  the  shock  of 
battle. 

The  Department  was  developing  a  sys 
tem  of  its  own  which  gave  great  promise 
of  success;  and,  in  recognition  of  my  in 
terest  in  the  subject,  I  had  been  invited 
to  witness  the  final  tests  of  the  installation 
during  the  spring  target  practice  of  the 

Oklahoma. 

149 


150  AMERICA  FALLEN 

There  are  moments  in  one's  life  which 
stand  out  with  sharp  definition  amid  the 
crowded  and  more  or  less  blurred  mem 
ories  of  the  past.  Among  these  I  shall 
ever  reckon  the  breakfast  hour,  on  the 
morning  of  April  ist,  in  the  wardroom  of 
the  Oklahoma,  flagship  of  the  United 
States  North  Atlantic  fleet,  which  was  at 
anchor,  on  that  particular  day,  off  Vera 
Cruz. 

The  Mexican  situation  had  reached  one 
of  its  ever-recurring  crises,  with  the  result 
that  the  army  had  moved  down  to  the 
Mexican  border  and  the  fleet  to  this  Mexi 
can  port. 

The  conversation  in  the  wardroom 
mess  had  been  drifting  along  in  a  desultory 
way,  when  an  orderly  entered  with  a  re 
quest  for  the  presence  of  the  executive  offi 
cer  in  the  Admiral's  cabin.  In  a  few  min 
utes  Commander  Burnley  returned,  hold 
ing  in  his  hand  a  wireless  message.  There 


SEEKING  THE  GERMAN  FLEET     1 5 1 

was  that  in  his  face  which  caused  a  sudden 
hush. 

"  I  have  here  a  radio  message  from 
Washington  by  way  of  Key  West,"  he 
said,  "which  I  will  read:  'Germany  has 
declared  war  on  the  United  States.  Have 
information  German  advance  fleet  is  fol 
lowing  southern  course  for  Caribbean; 
second  fleet  on  northern  course  for  our  At 
lantic  coast.  Proceed  full  speed  for  Guan- 
tanamo  Bay,  Cuba,  to  take  on  coal  and 
supplies.  Find  and  destroy  weaker  ad 
vance  German  fleet.  Send  injured  ships  to 
Hampton  Roads  and  proceed  to  Canal 
Zone,  Panama.  Under  cover  of  guns  of 
fortifications,  await  arrival  of  Third  and 
Fourth  Divisions  of  Atlantic  fleet  from 
Pacific,  and  proceed  north  in  full  strength 
to  engage  second  fleet  of  enemy.' ' 

The  tidings  that  war  had  been  declared 
on  the  United  States  was  flashed  through 
the  fleet,  and  a  hurry  call  was  sent  ashore 


152  AMERICA  FALLEN 

for  the  return  of  the  landing  force  of  sea 
men  and  marines.  Ships  that  were  coaling 
cast  off  their  colliers,  and  before  noon  the 
fleet  had  sailed. 

Shortly  before  midnight  of  April  5th 
the  Oklahoma  led  the  way  into  Guan- 
tanamo  Bay,  Cuba.  The  6th  was  spent 
in  coaling,  taking  aboard  full  supplies  of 
stores  and  ammunition,  and  sending  ashore 
the  boats  and  all  superfluous  ship's  furni 
ture.  On  the  yth,  shortly  before  dawn, 
the  fleet,  stripped  for  action,  had  sailed  to 
the  eastward,  to  "  find  and  destroy  the 
enemy." 

Overnight,  Admiral  Willard,  Command- 
er-in-Chief  of  our  fleet,  had  thrown  out  to 
the  eastward  a  strong  scouting  force — such 
as  it  was — strong  in  numbers,  but  utterly 
inadequate  for  its  purpose.  It  consisted 
of  the  three  armored  cruisers  Washington, 
North  Carolina,  and  Tennessee  and  four 
divisions  of  destroyers. 


SEEKING  THE  GERMAN  FLEET     153 

The  cruisers  were  powerful  ships  carry 
ing  four  lO-inch  and  sixteen  6-inch  guns, 
and  they  were  capable  of  breaking  through 
any  screen  of  the  German  light  cruisers  of 
the  Karlsruhe  type;  but  they  would  be 
utterly  at  the  mercy  of  the  28-knot  battle- 
cruisers  possessed  by  Germany,  their  best 
speed  being  only  a  little  over  22  knots. 

The  destroyers,  twenty  in  all,  should 
never  have  been  dispatched  on  such  service. 
Their  place  was  with  the  main  fleet.  Had 
the  recommendations  of  the  General 
Board  been  followed,  we  would  have  pos 
sessed,  on  this  disastrous  day,  a  dozen  27- 
knot  scouts,  and  our  main  fleet,  the  first 
line  of  defence  of  the  United  States  against 
invasion,  would  not  have  been  left  exposed 
on  both  flanks  to  the  destroyer  attacks  of 
the  enemy. 

By  the  courtesy  of  the  executive  officer  I 
found  myself  on  the  forward  fire-control 
platform  of  the  Oklahoma.  As  we  cleared 


154  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  entrance  to  Guantanamo  Bay  and 
swung  around  to  the  eastward,  from  my 
station,  120  feet  above  the  sea,  I  gazed 
with  no  little  pride  at  the  two  divisions  of 
dreadnoughts  strung  out  astern,  ship  be 
yond  ship  at  5OO-yard  intervals,  in  a  stately 
column  which  covered  some  three  miles  of 
water. 

Below  me  was  the  flagship,  fresh  from 
the  builders'  hands.  Seen  from  above,  she 
looked  wonderfully  like  those  deck-plan 
drawings  which  I  had  studied  in  the  naval 
annuals.  Forward  was  the  new  type  of 
3-gun  turret,  with  its  long,  lean  1 4-inch 
guns  looking  for  all  the  world  like  Brob- 
dingnagian  lead  pencils.  Abaft  of  it  was 
turret  No.  2,  with  its  pair  of  guns  reach 
ing  clear  across  the  roof  of  turret  No.  i. 
Astern  I  looked  down  into  the  yawning 
mouth  of  our  huge  single  smokestack. 
Not  so  much  as  a  wraith  of  tell-tale  smoke 
drifted  from  its  edge;  merely  the  shimmer 


SEEKING  THE  GERMAN  FLEET     1 5  5 

of  heated  gases — and  I  remembered  that 
the  boilers  below  were  oil  burners.  Imme 
diately  abaft  the  mainmast,  another  pair 
of  those  beauties — the  1 4-inch — showed 
from  No.  3  turret,  with  their  muzzles 
poised  a  few  feet  above  turret  No.  4,  from 
which  protruded  three  14*5.  Truly  a  noble 
ship,  her  powers  of  offence,  represented  by 
ten  14*5  and  twenty-two  5*5,  being  matched 
by  the  massive  armor,  13^  to  18  inches 
in  thickness,  the  like  of  which  was 
to  be  found  in  no  other  navy  of  the 
world. 

Five  hundred  yards  astern,  with  a  white 
feather  of  foam  curling  from  her  shapely 
stem,  was  the  Nevada,  twin  sister  to  the 
flagship.  Astern  of  her,  at  the  same  in 
terval,  were  the  New  York  and  Texas, 
carrying  each  a  battery  of  ten  14*8  and 
twenty-one  5*5. 

A  wonderful  piece,  that  14 — the  pet  and 
pride  of  the  officers  and  men.  Down  at 


156  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Indian  Head,  it  had  passed  its  proving 
tests  triumphantly.  Fifty-four  feet  long, 
63  tons  in  weight,  it  had  fired  its  1,400- 
pound  shell  with  a  velocity  of  2,600  feet  a 
second  and  an  energy  of  65,000  foot-tons. 
At  a  distance  of  10,000  yards,  the  projec 
tiles  were  capable  of  passing  clean  through 
1 6  inches  of  Krupp  armor.  Elevated  to 
its  limit  of  15  degrees,  the  gun  could  place 
a  shell  on  a  ship  twelve  miles  distant. 

And  there  were  forty  of  these  guns  that 
could  speak  at  once,  and  twice  a  min 
ute  each,  in  the  first  four  ships  of  our 
line. 

Astern  of  the  Texas,  I  saw  those  stately 
ships,  the  Arkansas  and  Wyoming,  mount 
ing,  each,  twelve  1 2-inch  guns  in  its  six  tur 
rets,  with  a  battery  of  twenty-one  5-inch 
rapid-firers  to  repel  torpedo  attack. 

Seventh  and  eighth  in  line  were  the  twin 
sisters,  Utah  and  Florida,  each  carrying 
ten  12-inch  guns  and  sixteen  5-inch.  Last 


SEEKING  THE  GERMAN  FLEET     1 5  7 

in  the  line  were  the  Delaware  and  North 
Dakota,  our  earliest  dreadnoughts,  mount 
ing  ten  i2's  and  fourteen  5*5. 

In  displacement  the  ships  varied  from 
the  20,000  tons  of  the  Delaware  to  the 
27,500  tons  of  the  Oklahoma.  The  belt 
armor  was  from  n  inches  to  13^  inches 
in  thickness,  and  the  maximum  speed  of 
the  fleet  was  21  knots. 

Every  ship  could  fire  its  whole  broad 
side  on  either  beam,  and  in  every  minute  of 
the  coming  engagement  we  would  be  able 
to  hurl  at  the  enemy  110  tons  of  projec 
tiles,  every  one  of  which,  if  it  landed 
squarely,  would  pass  entirely  through  the 
belt  armor  of  the  enemy  and  burst  in  the 
interior  of  the  ship. 

Ship  for  ship  and  gun  for  gun,  we  knew 
that  we  could  crush  that  German  fleet, 
which,  the  radio  had  told  us,  was  ap 
proaching  somewhere  to  the  eastward. 

But  where  was  the  enemv?     In  what 


15?  AMERICA  FALLEN 

strength  was  he?     And,  most  important 
question  of  all,  how  did  he  shoot? 

Before  that  sun,  which  I  noted  was  just 
showing  the  golden  edge  of  his  rim  above 
the  horizon,  had  set,  those  questions  had 
received  their  answer  amid  the  fruitless 
heroism,  the  cataclysmic  destruction,  of 
the  greatest  sea  fight  in  naval  history. 


XV 

THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN 

I  REMEMBER  it  was  while  six  bells  were 
striking  that  there  came  the  following 
radio  call  from  one  of  our  scouts,  the  ar 
mored  cruiser  Washington:  " Approaching 
St.  Nicholas,"  it  said,  "  fog  lifted,  dis 
closing  screen  of  five  battle-cruisers  of  the 
enemy,  steaming  abreast,  distance  20,000 
yards,  covering  a  column  of  ten  ships, 
apparently  battleships.  All  are  heading 
west.  Am  returning  full  speed,  22l/2 
knots."  At  7:15  A.M.  came  another  mes 
sage:  "  Enemy,  in  chase,  has  opened  fire 
at  18,000  yards  and  is  coming  up  fast." 
And  then  the  story  came  in  quick  sequence. 
At  7  :3O :  "  Enemy  at  15,000  yards  is  using 
forward  12-  and  n-inch  guns  on  all  five 

ships.     Am  replying  with  two  after   10- 
159 


160  AMERICA  FALLEN 

inch."  At  7:40:  "Received  two  shells, 
raking  starboard  battery."  At  7 145 : 
"  Shell  in  boiler-room  and  two  funnels 
gone.  Speed  15  knot3."  At  7  155  :  "  Steer 
ing  gear  gone— after  turret  disabled- 
heavy  casualties — am  shot  to  pieces — go 
ing  down  by  stern,  colors  flying — sorry 
cannot  give  details  battleship  fleet— our 
position  is  lat.—  -!  " 

A  wireless  call  was  sent  for  our  de 
stroyers  to  rejoin  the  fleet  at  full  speed, 
and  the  speed  of  the  fleet  was  raised  to 
17  knots. 

And  then  we  saw  them — on  the  star 
board  bow.  First  the  masts,  with  the  flut 
ter  of  the  battle-flags  discernible;  then 
the  smokestacks,  the  turrets,  the  hulls,  and, 
yes !  the  five  battle-cruisers,  which  only  a 
brief  hour  before  had  sent  the  Washington 
with  her  gallant  company  to  the  bottom. 

And  then,  up  over  the  horizon,  sil 
houetted  sharply  against  the  eastern  sky, 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     161 

there  came,  a  mile  or  more  astern,  the  van 
of  the  battleship  line — one — two — three — 
eight  in  all :  the  German  dreadnoughts. 
And  now  the  battle-cruisers  began  to  swing 
around,  at  full  speed,  in  a  wide  turn  to 
port,  following  in  the  wake  of  their  flag 
ship,  Derfflinger,  until  they  had  made  a 
turn  of  1 6  points,  and  were  heading  to  the 
east.  Simultaneously,  each  ship  of  the 
two  battleship  divisions  swung  around, 
with  helm  hard  over,  until  it  had  turned 
1 6  points.  When  the  maneuver  was  com 
pleted,  the  Germans  were  heading  east  in 
two  parallel  columns,  the  battleship  col 
umn  abreast  of  us  at  a  distance  of  16,000 
yards,  and  the  battle-cruisers  some  5,000 
yards  off  their  starboard  bow  and  21,000 
yards  from  our  line. 

In  order  to  secure  more  of  an  offing 
from  the  Cuban  coast,  and  obtain  ample 
room  for  maneuvering,  our  Admiral  sig 
naled  for  every  ship  to  turn  four  points 


1 62  AMERICA  FALLEN 

to  starboard;  a  maneuver  which  was  in 
stantly  followed  by  the  Germans. 

"  Ha,  ha,"  laughed  an  ensign,  who,  with 
his  eye  at  the  range-finder,  was  calling  the 
distances  into  a  telephone  mouthpiece, 
"  they  don't  want  to  come  too  close  to  our 
i 4-inch  guns;  and  as  for  the  battle-cruisers, 
they  are  going  to  stay  out  of  the  scrap  al 
together;  for  at  over  20,000  yards  their 
n's  can  never  reach  us." 

'  You  are  wrong  there,"  said  Lieuten 
ant  Carlisle,  the  spotter;  "the  German 
batteries  can  elevate  to  30  degrees,  which 
is  just  twice  as  much  as  we  can.  Their 
n's  have  the  advantage  in  range,  carrying 
up  to  26,000  yards,  as  a  matter  of  fact. 
See  that?  They  are  trying  a  ranging  shot 
at  21,000  yards." 

And,  sure  enough,  there  was  a  flash 
from  the  forward  turret  of  the  Der- 
fflinger,  and  thirty-five  seconds  later,  with 
a  deep  moaning  roar,  a  shell  passed  over 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     163 

our  heads  and  dropped  into  the  sea,  five 
hundred  yards  beyond  the  ship. 

And  now  Admiral  Willard,  having  ob 
tained  sufficient  offing,  brought  his  fleet 
back  into  column  again,  ready  for  the  great 
trial  of  strength. 

There  was  another  flash  from  the  Der- 
fflinger,  and  half  a  minute  later  the  shell 
struck  300  yards  to  starboard  of  the  Okla 
homa. 

"  Good  shooting,"  said  the  ensign, 
"  now  for  the  salvo." 

But  it  did  not  come — not  yet.  Instead, 
the  leading  ship  of  the  German  dread 
nought  column  tried  for  range.  The  shell 
struck  400  yards  short.  The  next  was  600 
yards  over.  And  then  came  the  salvos. 
From  both  ships  there  burst  a  flash  of 
flame,  from  the  battle-cruiser  first  and,  a 
few  seconds  later,  from  the  dreadnought 
— and  the  Oklahoma  was  the  target  of 
each. 


164  AMERICA  FALLEN 

With  a  crash  that  seemed  to  rend  the 
heavens,  those  twenty  1 2-inch  shells 
"  straddled "  our  ship,  one  making  a 
square  hit  on  our  belt  and  the  others  strik 
ing  the  sea  on  either  beam,  and  sending 
up  vast  columns  of  water  that  rose  some 
250  feet  in  the  air,  and  fell  like  broken 
waterspouts  upon  our  decks.  We  on  the 
fire-control  platform  were  drenched  and 
found  ourselves  standing  over  our  boot- 
tops  in  water. 

But  what  of  the  Oklahoma?  Had  her 
guns  been  silent?  Far  from  it. 

As  soon  as  the  German  columns 
straightened  out  after  their  turn  to  the 
eastward,  Ensign  Brown  at  the  range- 
finder  began  to  telephone  the  range  to  the 
fire-control  station  below  decks.  u  Sixteen 
thousand  five  hundred  yards;  16,200;  16,- 
ooo;  15,500;  15,000."  And  looking  over 
the  rail,  I  noted  that  the  center  gun  in  No. 
i  turret  was  lifting  its  muzzle.  Then  came 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     165 

a  snapping  crash,  a  burst  of  flame,  a  drift 
of  light-brown  smoke,  and  the  1,400- 
pound  shell  was  away  on  its  flight. 
Twenty  seconds  later  a  beautiful  snow- 
white  column  rose  a  little  short  of  the  Ger 
man  flagship  and  slightly  astern.  The 
"  spotter,"  his  eyes  glued  to  his  glasses, 
called  into  the  mouthpiece  of  his  telephone  : 
"Up  300;  left  6." 

Down  to  the  central  station  below  the 
water-line  went  the  message.  The  neces 
sary  corrections  in  the  elevation  of  the 
gun  were  there  figured  out  and  telephoned 
to  the  sight-setter  at  the  gun.  Again  a 
shell  sped  to  the  mark.  This  time  the 
splash  was  beyond  the  ship  and  ahead. 
"  Down  200;  right  3,"  called  the  spotter. 
And  now  the  necessary  corrections  being 
made  on  every  gun  in  the  ship's  battery, 
the  fire-control  officer,  holding  the  cross 
hairs  of  his  telescope  on  the  German  flag 
ship,  pressed  a  button  and  all  the  1 4-inch 


1 66  AMERICA  FALLEN 

guns  in  our  battery  let  go  together,  and  the 
ten  i,4OO-pound  shells  soared  into  the 
heavens,  visible  for  a  few  seconds  to  the 
eye.  There  was  a  magnificent  burst  of 
water  at  the  German  flagship,  and,  as  it 
fell  away,  through  my  glasses  I  could  see 
that  her  after  smokestack  was  gone.  The 
ragged  outline  of  her  deck,  moreover, 
showed  where  the  shells  had  burst  inboard, 
lifting  the  deck,  and  apparently  jamming 
the  after  turret. 

And  when  the  flagship  had  spoken, 
every  ship  down  our  line  burst  forth  in 
flame  and  fury.  The  Germans  fired  with 
greater  frequency  and  the  storm  of  their 
shells,  striking  the  water,  raised  such  a 
mass  of  broken  spray  that,  at  times,  I 
could  see  no  farther  than  the  second  ship 
astern. 

The  American  ships  fired  with  greater 
deliberation,  and,  evidently,  with  greater 
accuracy.  Moreover,  against  a  com- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     167 

bined  broadside  for  the  enemy  dread 
noughts  of  thirty-two  I2's  and  thirty-two 
n's,  we  opposed  a  total  broadside  of 
forty  I4's  and  sixty- four  iz's.  The  fire 
of  the  German  battle-cruisers  at  20,000 
yards  was  too  inaccurate  to  be  much  more 
than  annoying,  although  some  deck  hits 
were  made. 

After  ten  minutes  of  furious  fighting, 
superior  weight  of  metal  began  to  tell. 
The  flagship  Thuringcn,  writh  one  smoke 
stack  gone  and  the  after  turret  out  of 
action,  began  to  slow  down;  finally  drop 
ping  to  the  rear,  leaving  the  Helgoland 
to  lead  the  line.  Later,  she  picked  up  and 
took  station  at  the  rear  of  the  German 
column.  Then  the  Oldenburg,  second  in 
line,  took  a  sudden  shear,  and  began  to 
circle,  finally  coming  back  on  her  own  line 
and  cutting  in  between  the  Thuringen 
(last  in  line)  and  the  Posen.  A  1 4-inch 
shell  striking  fair  on  the  conning  tower 


1 68  AMERICA  FALLEN 

had  wrecked  it  and  jammed  her  steering 
wheel.  Ultimately,  she  straightened  out, 
1,500  yards  astern  of  the  column,  which 
slowed  down  to  cover  her  until  she  closed 
up. 

The  first  ship  to  be  put  out  of  action 
was  the  Nassau,  which  succumbed  to  the 
concentrated  salvos  of  the  four  leading 
ships  of  our  line.  Under  the  impact  of 
their  1 4-inch  shells,  it  looked  through  our 
glasses  as  though  a  whole  section  of  her 
side  armor  was  driven  bodily  into  the 
ship.  She  dropped  out  of  line  mortally 
hurt,  and,  heeling  rapidly,  capsized  and 
sank,  fifteen  minutes  after  the  action 
opened. 

Our  leading  ships  then  concentrated  on 
the  Helgoland  and  Ostfrlesland,  first  and 
second  in  line ;  and  in  order  to  cover  them 
the  battle-cruisers,  risking  the  penetration 
of  their  belts  by  our  14*3,  drew  ahead  clear 
of  the  dreadnought  line  and  closing  in  to 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN    169 

15,000  yards  began  to  plant  their  salvos 
on  the  Oklahoma  and  Nevada. 

Their  shells,  falling  at  a  steep  angle, 
were  dropping  on  our  decks;  and  it  was 
one  of  these  that  pierced  the  protective 
deck  of  the  Nevada,  smashed  her  low  pres 
sure  turbines,  and  threw  this  fine  ship  out 
of  the  line.  She  stopped  and  drifted 
astern.  When  I  last  saw  her,  she  was  blaz 
ing  away  with  her  5-inch  batteries  at  a 
swarm  of  German  destroyers,  which  had 
rushed  in,  like  a  crowd  of  angry  terriers, 
to  get  her  with  the  torpedo. 

The  fight  had  now  been  on  for  half  an 
hour  and  we  were  asserting  our  superior 
ity.  The  battle-cruiser  Von  der  Tann  had 
been  badly  hit  and  was  settling  by  the  stern. 
The  fire  from  the  German  dreadnoughts 
had  perceptibly  slackened,  and  the  Thu- 
rlngen,  at  the  tail  of  the  column,  was  again 
in  trouble  with  her  steering-gear  and  had 
fallen  behind.  Although  our  ships  had 


1 70  AMERICA  FALLEN 

been  badly  knocked  about  in  their  upper 
works  and  some  of  the  turrets  had  been 
disabled,  the  water  line  was  intact  on  every 
ship.  Victory  was  in  sight,  and  we  on  the 
fire-control  platform  were  jubilantly  slap 
ping  each  other  on  the  back,  when,  hap 
pening  to  look  landwards  (we  were  now 
clearing  Cape  Maysi,  the  extreme  easterly 
point  of  Cuba),  I  saw  the  leading  ships  of 
a  column  of  warships  moving  past  the 
point  and  bearing  down  diagonally  upon 
our  port  bow. 

I  touched  the  spotter  on  the  shoul 
der:  "  Carlisle,  look  at  that;  what  is 
it?" 

He  swung  his  glasses  upon  the  fleet  (it 
was  clear  of  the  point  by  now).  '  That, 
my  dear  sir,  is  the  other  and  stronger  half 
of  the  German  fleet,  four  Koenigs  and  the 
five  Kaisers ." 

"  Good  Heavens!  Then  we  are  in  for 
it." 


172  AMERICA  FALLEN 

"  In  for  a  licking,"  my  dear  boy,  "  if 
they  can  do  as  good  shooting  as  our 
friends  over  there,"  with  a  wave  of  the 
hand  to  the  starboard. 

"  But  the  radio  from  Key  West  told 
us  that  this  fleet  was  a  thousand  miles 
north  from  here." 

Carlisle  was  silent  for  a  moment.  "Did 
you  not  think  it  strange  that  we  should 
have  been  able  to  communicate  only  with 
Key  West  radio  station — not  a  word  from 
Colon  or  Arlington?" 

"  Yes,  I  had  thought  of  that." 

"  Well,  that  second  fleet  coming  out 
from  under  the  lee  of  Cuba  has  made 
everything  as  clear  as  day  to  me.  The 
Germans  have  raided  our  coasts  (why, — 
we  may  never  live  to  know),  seized  Key 
West,  and,  using  our  secret  code  (which 
their  confounded  Intelligence  Service  has 
undoubtedly  gotten  hold  of),  have  led  us, 
in  their  own  good  time,  and  with  true  Ger- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     173 

man  precision,  into  this  trap.    Just  look  at 
that !     They  are  going  to  tee  us." 

And  there  we  saw  the  four  battle- 
cruisers,  going  28  knots,  forge  ahead  of 
the  German  column,  and  draw  in,  diag 
onally,  across  our  path. 

By  the  time  the  second  fleet  of  the 
enemy  had  closed  in  to  12,000  yards  and 
opened  fire,  the  cruiser  division  was  zig 
zagging  across  our  course,  10,000  yards 
ahead,  and  delivering  a  raking  fire  right 
down  our  line,  first  letting  fly  to  starboard, 
then  to  port. 

A  hurricane  of  fire  and  steel  smote  the 
head  of  the  American  line.  By  precon 
certed  plan,  every  ship  of  the  enemy,  from 
starboard,  from  port,  and  from  dead 
ahead,  concentrated  on  the  Oklahoma. 
Never  had  such  a  fury  of  shells  stormed 
upon  ship  or  fortress  as  found  and 
searched  out  the  American  flagship.  In 
those  brief  minutes  before  she  sank,  all 


174  AiMERicA  FALLEN 

semblance  of  a  ship  had  gone  out  of  her. 
The  roar  of  bursting  shells  was  continuous. 
From  side  to  side  and  from  end  to  end 
they  tore  through  her  quivering  frame  and 
laughed  at  her  dying  agony. 

And  I  am  told  that  what  happened  to 
her  happened  at  the  head  of  the  surviving 
line,  until  the  last  ship  had  gone, — the 
column  melting  away  before  that  concen 
trated  fire  like  a  bar  of  sealing  wax  before 
a  blowpipe. 

I  remember,  as  the  noble  ship  keeled 
swiftly  over,  how  the  fire-control  platform 
described  a  mighty  arc  through  the  air, 
and  flung  us  into  the  shell-lashed  waters. 
My  last  recollection  of  that  holocaust  is 
of  seeing  the  Arkansas,  flashing  from 
stem  to  stern  with  the  burst  of  high- 
explosive  shell  as  she  swept  by.  Then  a 
shell  fragment  grazed  my  head. 

The  water,  or  I  know  not  what,  brought 


THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CARIBBEAN     175 

me  to.  Far  in  the  distance  the  flash  and 
smoke  and  roar  of  battle  marked  where 
the  last  American  ship  was  being  done  to 
death,  the  dear  old  flag  flaunting  its  "  no 
surrender "  message  to  the  bitter  end. 
And  then,  as  the  sad  vision  and  all  vision 
began  to  fade  away,  I  heard  sharp  words 
of  command,  and  the  swish  of  backing  pro 
pellers,  and  something  jerked  me  violently 
by  the  collar,  and  I  was  lying  upon  my 
back,  and  a  familiar  voice  was  saying: 
"  Bless  my  soul,  if  it  isn't  Watson !  What 
in  the  name  of  the  unexpected  and  im 
possible  are  you  doing  here?  " 

And  I  had  been  fished  out  of  the  water 
by  a  boat  hook  and  landed  on  the  deck  of 
the  U.  S.  destroyer  Patterson;  and  there 
was  Commander  Judson,  whose  guest  I  had 
been  on  this  very  boat,  during  a  never-to- 
be-forgotten  week  of  the  summer  ma 
neuvers  last  year. 

"  I  came  down  to  witness  director  firing 


176  AMERICA  FALLEN 

on  the  Oklahoma  and — well — I  saw  it. — 
And  you,  what  are  you  going  to  do?  " 

"  Beat  it  for  Hampton  Roads,  or  any 
other  point  where  I  can  get  in  to  tell  the 
good  people  of  the  United  States,  and  their 
good  representatives  in  the  halls  of  Con 
gress,  to  what  a  pretty  mess  they  have 
brought  their  navy,  as  the  result  of 
interference,  parsimony,  and  neglect!" 


XVI 

REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND 

THE  plan  of  campaign  for  the  invasion  of 
the  United  States,  as  formulated  by  the 
Great  General  Staff  at  Berlin,  comprised 
three  major  operations: 

I.  To  make  a  surprise  attack  upon  the 
coast    by    a    raiding    force,    and    capture 
Washington    and   the    principal   seaboard 
cities,  harbors,  and  naval  bases. 

II.  To    destroy   the    enemy    fleet    and 
obtain  command  of  the  sea% 

III.  By  the  instant  seizure  of  all  the  ar 
senals,  gun  factories,  and  powder  works, 
to  prevent  the  development  of  the  great 
potential  strength  of  the  United  States  in 
men  capable  of  bearing  arms. 

So  perfect  was  the  preparation  of  Ger 
many;  so  complete  the  unpreparedness  of 


178  AMERICA  FALLEN 

the  great  country  against  which  she 
launched  her  attack,  that  within  a  week  of 
the  declaration  of  war  her  fleet  had  sunk 
the  enemy  and  was  in  undisputed  command 
of  the  sea,  and  her  army  had  captured  the 
National  Capital  and  the  two  leading  sea 
ports  of  the  country. 

At  the  very  hour  when  the  Mayor  of 
New  York  received  the  ultimatum  of  Ad 
miral  Buchner,  there  dropped  anchor  in 
the  Narrows  the  new  54,ooo-ton  liner 
Bismarck.  It  was  her  maiden  voyage 
(duly  advertised),  and  she  had  on  board 
10,000  German  troops  with  their  full 
equipment.  The  next  day  she  was  joined 
by  the  Imperator  and  the  Valerland,  and 
as  soon  as  the  signal  "  cease  firing  "  had 
been  made  from  the  Koenig,  the  three 
great  ships,  carrying  30,000  troops,  or  as 
many  as  the  total  regular  mobile  army  in 
the  United  States  at  that  hour,  steamed  to 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      179 

the  Hoboken  and  Chelsea  docks  and  began 
the  work  of  debarkation.  Before  night  on 
April  zd,  the  German  forces  in  New  York, 
including  the  garrisons  at  the  forts,  num 
bered  35,000  men. 

To  Boston  came  the  Cecilie,  the  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  II,  and  many  another  well- 
remembered  liner,  crowded  with  men  and 
equipment.  Night  and  day  the  soldiers 
of  the  Kaiser  poured  down  the  gangways 
of  the  ships,  formed  in  column,  marched 
from  the  docks  to  the  armories,  and  were 
billeted  throughout  the  cities. 

And  now,  the  need  for  secrecy  being 
removed,  transports  steamed  boldly  up 
the  Chesapeake,  and  Washington  re 
ceived  its  quota  of  the  first  reinforcements 
from  Germany.  Here,  the  guns,  horses, 
transport  wagons,  etc.,  were  placed  on 
pontoons  for  transport  from  ship  to  land 
ing  beach. 

So  excellent  were  the  facilities  for  de- 


i  So  AMERICA  FALLEN 

barkation  afforded  by  the  possession  of 
New  York  and  Boston,  that  by  April  5th, 
including  the  raiding  force,  two  army 
corps,  or  80,000  troops,  fully  equipped  and 
ready  for  service  in  the  field,  had  been 
landed  in  America. 

And  thereafter  during  the  next  five  days, 
the  faster  ships  of  the  transports  which 
sailed  from  Germany  on  April  ist  began 
to  arrive,  warping  into  the  piers  at  New 
York  and  Boston,  which  had  been  vacated 
by  the  earlier  transports ;  so  that  by  April 
loth  the  German  forces  in  the  United 
States  had  been  raised  to  100,000  men. 

Bold,  indeed,  was  the  strategy  which 
dared  to  send  this  army  to  sea  in  unarmed 
transports,  while  the  main  fleet  of  the 
enemy  was  still  "  in  being,"  or  intact  upon 
the  high  seas.  Had  not  the  great  Mahan 
and  many  another  authority  before  him 
laid  it  down,  that  before  troops  were  em 
barked  the  enemy  fleet  must  be  either 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      181 

sunk  or  securely  blockaded  in  its  own 
ports?  True;  but,  "Other  times,  other 
customs."  The  advent  of  the  seagoing 
submarine  and  of  the  wireless  had  intro 
duced  factors  which  had  upset  the  old 
formulas  of  war. 

The  possession  by  the  enemy  of  a  force 
of  seagoing  submarines  enabled  them,  at 
one  stroke,  to  clear  the  coasts  of  every  hos 
tile  ship  from  Canada  to  the  Panama 
Canal;  and  the  capture  of  the  radio  plants 
and  the  possession  by  Germany  of  the 
U.  S.  Navy  Secret  Code  made  it  possible 
to  lure  its  main  fleet  into  a  position  where 
it  could  be  overwhelmed  by  superior  num 
bers. 

Finally,  on  April  nth  there  appeared 
off  the  American  coast  a  great  fleet  of  45 
transports,  having  on  board  100,000 
troops,  and  convoyed  by  the  pre-dread- 
nought  ships  of  the  Deutschland  and 
Witllesbach  classes.  It  divided,  the  five 


1 82  AMERICA  FALLEN 

Deutschlands  convoying  half  of  the  force 
to  New  York  and  the  five  Wittlesbachs 
proceeding  with  the  other  half  to  the  Dela 
ware.  The  defences  of  the  Delaware 
having  been  already  taken  from  the  land 
side,  the  fleet  steamed  up  to  Philadel 
phia. 

By  the  1 4th  of  April,  or  just  two  weeks 
after  the  declaration  of  war,  an  army  of 
200,000  of  the  picked  veterans  of  the  re 
cent  European  conflict  had  been  landed 
on  American  shores  and  was  prepared  to 
move  into  the  interior  for  the  subjugation 
of  the  country. 

And  that  was  how  it  came  about  that 
the  United  States — the  wealthiest  and,  po 
tentially  in  its  undeveloped  wealth  of  men 
and  natural  resources,  the  most  powerful 
country  on  earth — found  itself,  in  the 
space  of  two  eventful  weeks,  held  fast  in 
the  "  mailed  fist  "  of  a  foreign  foe. 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      183 

Having,  lo  !  these  many  years,  "  sown  to 
the  wind  "  the  seeds  of  pacificist  delusion, 
of  political  self-seeking,  of  amazing  self- 
sufficiency,  and  of  fatuous  neglect,  she  was 
now  to  "  reap  the  whirlwind  "  of  disillu 
sionment  and  humiliation  in  a  profound 
national  disaster! 

To  describe  in  any  detail  the  sequence 
of  the  operations  by  which  the  German 
Commander-in-Chief,  within  two  weeks  of 
the  opening  of  hostilities  had  captured  all 
the  arsenals,  and  arms  and  powder  works 
lying  between  the  coast  and  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  would  take  a  volume  in  itself. 
That  must  be  the  work  of  the  future  his 
torian.  It  will  suffice  for  the  present 
purpose  to  sketch  the  mere  outline  of  those 
tragic  events  which  came  to  be  known 
thereafter  as  The  Great  American  De 
bacle  ! 

Immediately  upon  the  capture  of  Bos- 


184  AMERICA  FALLEN 

ton,  New  York,  and  Washington,  detach 
ments  were  told  off  to  seize  the  railway 
yards  and  terminals,  and  to  commandeer 
such  automobiles  and  motor  trucks  as 
were  best  adapted  to  army  transport. 
This  was  done  in  each  case  on  April  ist, 
and  early  on  the  same  day  strong  flying 
detachments,  with  numerous  batteries  of 
machine-guns,  were  rushed  out  by  rail  and 
by  automobile  to  seize  the  bridges  and 
tunnels  on  the  main  lines  of  the  New 
Haven,  the  New  York  Central,  and  the 
Pennsylvania  systems.  Every  few  hours 
additional  reinforcements  were  pushed 
forward  to  strengthen  and  hold  these 
strategic  points,  until  the  several  armies 
of  occupation  could  be  brought  up  from 
the  coast  by  rail. 

And  on  April  6th,  the  railroads  being 
securely  held,  the  main  advance  began. 

From  Boston  a  force  of  5,000  men  was 
thrown  into  Portsmouth,  and  three  regi- 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      185 

ments,  comprising  about  10,000  men, 
moved  down  the  coast,  capturing  the  Fore 
River  Shipbuilding  plant  at  Quincy, 
Mass.,  where  most  of  the  United  States 
submarines  are  built,  and  seizing  the  Tor 
pedo  Station  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  the  sub 
marine  engine  works  at  Groton,  and  the 
port  of  New  London. 

By  way  of  the  New  Haven  four-track 
road,  15,000  troops  moved  from  New 
York  into  Connecticut,  capturing,  in  succes 
sion,  Bridgeport,  New  Haven,  Hartford, 
and  Springfield,  Mass.  This  placed  in  pos 
session  of  the  enemy  such  important  works 
as  those  of  the  Union  Metallic  Cartridge 
Company,  the  American  &  British  Mfg. 
Co.  for  making  field-guns,  the  Winches 
ter  and  Marlin  works,  the  Colt  works, 
and,  greatest  disaster  of  all,  the  United 
States  Aresnal,  where  the  rifles  for  the 
Regular  Army  and  the  Organized  Militia 
are  made. 


1 86  AMERICA  FALLEN 

The  army  of  invasion  by  way  of  the 
Hudson  River,  15,000  strong,  moving  by 
the  four-track  road  of  the  New  York  Cen 
tral,  captured  lona  Island,  an  important 
shell  and  powder  depot  of  the  U.  S.  Navy, 
and  at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  took  possession  of  the 
Government  works  for  the  manufacture  of 
heavy  coast-defence  guns  and  mortars. 
Pushing  on  they  soon  had  possession,  at 
Utica  and  Ilion,  of  the  Remington  and  of 
the  Savage  Small  Arms  works. 

The  invasion  of  New  Jersey  was  effected 
by  a  division  (20,000  men).  Strong  de 
tachments  of  this  force  seized  the  United 
States  Army  Arsenal  and  Powder  works 
near  Dover,  and  the  Powder  works  of  the 
Du  Pont  Powder  Company  at  Parlin, 
Pompton  Lakes,  and  other  New  Jersey 
points.  Another  detachment  moved 
through  Easton  and  took  possession  of  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Works,  one  of  the  most 
important  gun  and  armor  plants  in  the 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      187 

world.  The  balance  of  the  force,  com 
prising  some  15,000  men,  seized  Philadel 
phia,  and  took  over  the  great  shipbuild 
ing  yards  of  the  Cramps  at  Philadelphia 
and  of  the  New  York  Shipbuilding  Com 
pany  at  Camden,  N.  J.  Following  this, 
the  Germans  moved  down  on  both  sides 
of  the  Delaware  and  captured,  from  the 
land  side,  the  fortifications  on  the  river 
guarding  the  approaches  to  Philadel 
phia. 

From  Washington  7,000  troops  moved 
on  Baltimore,  and  pushing  on,  occupied 
Wilmington  and  the  great  powder  works 
of  the  Du  Pont  Powder  Company  at  Car 
ney  Point.  Fort  Monroe  was  reduced  by 
bombardment,  from  a  point  beyond  the 
range  of  its  guns,  by  the  battleship  fleet 
which  convoyed  the  second  half  of  the 
German  Army;  and  when  this  had  been  ac 
complished,  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard  and 
the  Newport  News  Shipyard  were  cap- 


1 88  AMERICA  FALLEN 

tured  by  a  force  of  3,000  men  from  Wash 
ington. 

And  thus,  by  April  loth,  the  major 
naval  and  military  operations  of  the  Ger 
man  plan  of  invasion  had  been  completed. 
The  United  States  main  fleet  was  sunk, 
Washington  and  the  principal  seacoast 
cities  were  captured,  and  the  arsenals  and 
gun  factories  (with  the  exception  of  that  at 
Rock  Island)  for  arming  and  supplying  any 
new  armies  which  might  be  raised  were  in 
German  hands. 

Eight  billions  of  the  twenty  billions 
which  was  the  ultimate  object  of  the  inva 
sion  had  been  pledged.  It  now  remained 
to  secure  from  the  Federal  Government 
the  twelve  billion  dollars,  which  had  been 
demanded  as  the  price  of  peace  and  the 
evacuation  of  United  States  territory. 

Let  it  not  be  for  one  moment  supposed 
that  while  its  territory  was  thus  being  out- 


REAPING  THE  WHIRLWIND      189 

raged  and  overrun,  the  United  States  was 
tamely  submissive.  The  regular  army, 
alas !  except  for  the  slender  garrisons,  was 
concentrated  thousands  of  miles  away  on 
the  Mexican  border;  but  the  moment  the 
news  of  the  invasion  was  flashed  inland, 
orders  were  given  for  the  mobilization  of 
the  militia  and  every  emergency  measure 
was  taken  to  meet  the  invader. 

But  so  quickly  did  he  strike  inland  that 
it  was  at  once  evident  that  any  concentra 
tion  of  troops  in  the  East,  in  sufficient 
strength  for  effectual  resistance,  was  im 
possible.  Therefore,  acting  on  the  advice 
of  his  Chief  of  Staff,  the  President  sent 
out  an  order  for  the  retirement  of  all 
forces,  regular  and  militia,  behind  the 
general  line  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  their 
concentration  at  Pittsburg,  the  temporary 
seat  of  Government. 

And  so,  with  smothered  rage,  the  de 
scendants  of  the  men  who  fought  at  Lex- 


190  AMERICA  FALLEN 

ington,  Bunker.  Hill,  and  Yorktown  saw 
the  richest  and  most  populous  section  of 
their  country  handed  over  for  occupation 
by  a  foreign  army;  and  the  bitterness  of 
that  hour  was  not  assuaged  by  the  thought 
that  this  evacuation  by  the  scatteredAmeri- 
can  troops  was  the  only  alternative  to  their 
capture  or  absolute  annihilation  by  the  per 
fectly  organized  army  of  occupation,  back 
of  which,  thanks  to  the  absolute  command 
of  the  sea,  lay  the  millions  of  the  Kaiser's 
army. 

Bitter  as  gall,  too,  was  the  thought  that, 
if  the  country  had  listened  to  the  oft- 
repeated  warnings  of  its  military  advisers, 
the  enemy  could  never  have  landed  on 
American  soil,  or,  having  done  so,  would 
have  been  met  by  a  quick  concentration  in 
such  superior  strength  as  to  drive  him  back 
to  his  ships. 


XVII 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG — AND  PEACE 

No  answer  having  been  received  by  the 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  German 
forces  in  America  to  the  proposals  for 
warded  to  the  United  States  Government 
at  Pittsburg,  orders  were  given  in  Berlin 
on  April  3d  for  the  immediate  embarkation 
of  a  third  army  of  100,000  men  for  the 
seat  of  war.  Also,  instructions  were  for 
warded  to  New  York  to  move  in  full 
strength  on  Pittsburg. 

Forthwith,  an  army  of  150,000  men  be 
gan  to  concentrate  at  Philadelphia — 50,- 
ooo  men  being  considered  amply  sufficient 
to  hold  the  cities  already  captured.  This 
confidence  was  based  on  the  absolutely  re 
liable  data  furnished  to  Berlin  before  the 

war  by  the   German   Intelligence   Service 
191 


192  AMERICA  FALLEN 

as  to  the  total  effectives  (90,000  regular 
and  militia)  in  the  country,  and  on  the  in 
formation  furnished  from  the  same  source 
as  to  the  complete  evacuation  of  the  At 
lantic  States  by  the  United  States  military 
forces  and  their  concentration  at  Pitts- 
burg. 

Before  the  movement  of  troops  dis 
closed  the  plan  of  campaign,  strong  ad 
vance  forces  were  thrown  forward  to  hold 
the  bridges  on  the  line  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  across  the  Alleghanies.  The 
main  force  moved  forward  on  April  i6th 
by  rail  and  motor  car,  on  parallel  roads, 
until  it  was  halted  at  the  great  stone  bridge 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  across  the 
Susquehanna,  near  Harrisburg,  three 
arches  of  which  had  been  blown  up  by  the 
United  States  Army  Engineers.  The  Ger 
mans  ultimately  crossed  by  temporary  tres 
tle  bridging,  and  by  a  pontoon  bridge, 
which  they  threw  across  the  river.  Sharp 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG     193 

fighting  occurred  between  the  American 
rear  guard  and  the  advance  screen  of  the 
German  Army  at  every  point  up  the  Juniata 
Valley  that  offered  strong  positions  for 
defence.  On  April  2Oth  and  2ist  one  of 
the  most  glorious  feats  of  arms  in  Ameri 
can  history  was  performed,  when  a  united 
force  of  10,000  regulars  and  15,000  mili 
tia  held  the  pass  at  the  summit  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  for  two  days,  throwing  back  the 
van  of  the  German  advance,  and  being  fin 
ally  dislodged  only  when  massed  batteries 
of  400  guns  caused  them  to  retreat — the 
whole  force  getting  away  down  the  Cone- 
maugh  Valley  with  their  artillery  and 
wounded. 

The  American  Army,  consisting  of 
28,000  regulars  and  42,000  effectives  of 
the  militia,  with  30,000  partially  trained 
and  ill-equipped  militia  in  reserve,  had 
taken  position  for  the  defence  of  Pitts- 
burg  on  the  historic  field  of  Braddock's 


194  AMERICA  FALLEN 

defeat.  The  little  army  was  strongly  en 
trenched;  but  in  field  artillery  it  was  sadly 
deficient,  having  only  180  field-guns, 
where  it  should  have  had  350.  There 
was  a  similar  shortage  in  machine-gun 
batteries. 

Against  the  Americans  was  deployed  an 
army  which,  in  spite  of  the  engagements  in 
crossing  the  mountains,  still  numbered 
145,000  men  of  all  arms.  It  was  com 
pletely  equipped,  and  of  the  7.7  centimeter 
field-gun  it  possessed  over  850,  besides  sev 
eral  batteries  of  8.2-inch  field  howitzers. 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  narra 
tive  to  attempt  any  description  of  the  Bat 
tle  of  Braddock.  Thanks  to  the  skill  with 
which  the  American  position  was  chosen, 
the  admirable  advantage  that  was  taken 
of  the  terrain  in  laying  out  the  trenches 
and  emplacing  the  batteries,  and  above  all 
the  matchless  courage  and  endurance  with 
which  the  American  Armv  clung  to  its 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG    195 

position — the  onset  of  the  German  inva 
sion  was  checked  and  its  first  rush  broken 
and  thrown  back  in  confusion  upon  the 
main  body.  Only  after  two  days  of  the 
bloodiest  charge  and  countercharge,  and 
when  the  whole  mass  of  the  German  ar 
tillery  had  blasted  the  American  trenches 
out  of  all  semblance  of  earthworks,  did  the 
remnant  of  the  American  forces  fall  back 
on  Pittsburg.  After  destroying  all  the 
bridges  the  army  fell  back  to  take  up  a 
strong  defensive  position  along  the  west 
bank  of  the  Ohio. 

The  seat  of  government  was  transferred 
to  Cincinnati;  and,  within  a  few  days,  an 
emissary  arrived  from  the  German  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  with  the  proposal  that, 
on  the  condition  of  the  payment  by  the 
Federal  Government  of  twelve  billion 
dollars  and  its  abandonment  of  the  "  Mon 
roe  Doctrine,"  the  German  Army  would 
be  reembarked,  leaving  sufficient  forces  to 


196  AMERICA  FALLEN 

hold  the  principal  custom-houses  on  the  At 
lantic  and  Gulf  Coast  until  the  indemnity 
was  paid. 

A  council  of  war  was  called  by  the  Presi 
dent  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  mili 
tary  situation.  Present  were  the  Cabinet, 
the  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Army,  and  the 
President  of  the  General  Board  of  the 
Navy. 

The  President  of  the  United  States, 
whose  poise,  so  far  as  any  outward  indica 
tions  might  show,  seemed  to  have  been  in 
no  wise  disturbed  by  the  stupendous 
calamity  which  had  overtaken  the  country, 
said: 

"  The  question  as  to  whether  it  will  be 
the  part  of  wisdom  to  accept  the  conditions 
of  the  enemy,  or  carry  on  the  war  until  he 
is  crushed  and  driven  back  to  the  sea,  is  a 
naval  and  military  one.  There  are  two 
questions,  indeed,  to  be  answered:  Is  there 
any  possibility  of  our  defeating  the  enemy 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG    197 

fleet  and  cutting  off  the  German  Army 
from  its  base;  and  failing  that,  what  are 
the  prospects  of  our  raising  an  army  or 
armies  of  sufficient  strength  to  defeat  the 
land  forces  of  the  enemy  and  drive  him 
back  to  the  sea." 

"  So  far  as  the  naval  situation  is  con 
cerned,"  said  the  President  of  the  General 
Board,  "  the  case  is  hopeless.  It  became 
so  on  the  fatal  day  when  every  dread 
nought  possessed  by  the  American  Navy 
was  sunk  in  the  Caribbean.  For,  although, 
in  spite  of  the  great  odds  against  which  we 
fought  (10  ships  against  22),  eight  of  the 
enemy  were  sunk,  they  still  have  14  ships 
of  the  dreadnought  class  off  our  coast,  be 
sides  10  ships  of  the  pre-dreadnought 
class,  to  say  nothing  of  strong  divisions 
and  flotillas  of  cruisers,  destroyers,  and 
submarines.  Our  own  pre-dreadnought 
fleet  is  in  the  Pacific,  and,  because  of  the 
preponderance  of  the  enemy  in  the  At- 


198  AMERICA  FALLEN 

lantic,  it  must  remain  there.  We  cannot 
increase  our  naval  strength;  for  all  of  our 
navy  yards  and  shipbuilding  plants  on  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
enemy.  Whatever  the  duration  of  the  war, 
Mr.  President,  the  command  of  the  sea 
will  remain  with  the  Germans;  and  they 
will  be  free  to  bring  over  the  whole 
German  Army,  should  they  wish  to  do 


so." 


He  was  followed  by  the  Chief  of  Staff, 
who  said: 

"  As  to  the  military  situation,  Mr.  Pres 
ident,  the  conditions  are  easily  stated. 

"  The  enemy  is  in  undisputed  possession 
of  the  richest,  most  valuable,  and  most 
densely  populated  section  of  the  United 
States.  He  holds  all  that  part  of  the 
country  north  of  the  Potomac  lying  be 
tween  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Atlantic 
Coast.  Being  in  command  of  the  sea  and 
possessing  ample  transport,  he  is  free  to 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG    199 

land  on  our  shores  as  many  troops  as  he 
may  desire.  His  army  can  live  off  the 
land.  Having  possession  of  the  principal 
ports  of  the  country,  he  can  collect  those 
revenues  which  have  formed  the  greater 
half  of  the  revenues  of  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment;  and  our  Treasury  will  be  de 
pleted  to  just  that  extent.  Therefore,  if 
we  carry  on  the  war,  the  cost  of  the  war, 
not  merely  to  us  but  to  the  enemy,  must 
be  borne  by  the  United  States. 

'  The  question  of  our  ability  to  raise 
and  equip  an  army  sufficient  in  numbers, 
equipment,  and  training  to  enable  us  to 
drive  the  enemy  back  to  the  sea  depends, 
primarily,  upon  the  strength  of  the  forces 
which  he  may  bring  over.  So  great  is  the 
prize  for  which  Germany  would  contend 
that  she  would  match  corps  with  corps, 
army  with  army;  and,  supposing  that  no 
European  complications  arise,  it  is  conceiv 
able  that  we  should  find  ourselves  con- 


200  AMERICA  FALLEN 

fronted  by  the  full  strength  of  the  German 
Army  or,  say,  including  the  first  and  second 
reserves,  by  4,000,000  men." 

Here  the  Secretary  of  State  interposed 
to  say : 

"  The  President  has  only  to  send  out  a 
call  for  volunteers,  and  out  of  our  100,- 
000,000  citizens,  10,000,000  would  spring 
to  arms  before  the  sun  had  set." 

"  True,  Mr.  Secretary,"  said  the  Chief 
of  Staff,  "  but  you  must  remember  that  se 
curing  the  men  is  the  simplest  part  of  the 
problem.  Moreover,  you  must  not  forget 
that  the  most  populous  portion  of  the 
country  is  held  by  the  enemy,  and  if  he 
can  prevent  it — which  he  will — not  a  single 
volunteer  will  be  available  from  the  cap 
tured  territory. 

"  The  problem,  however,  is  not  to  get 
the  men,  but  the  officers  to  lead  them  and 
the  rifles,  uniforms,  ammunition,  and 
above  all  the  artillery,  with  which  to  equip 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG     201 

them.  Without  these,  your  10,000,000 
men,  Mr.  Secretary,  as  I  told  you  in  Wash 
ington,  would  be  merely  a  mob,  10,000,- 
ooo  strong. 

"  Take  the  question  of  artillery  alone. 
Without  it,  to  send  an  army  to  battle  with 
the  superbly  equipped  German  troops 
would  be  to  send  the  brave  fellows  to  cer 
tain  slaughter.  To  equip  an  army  of 
4,000,000  men  with  field  artillery  alone 
would  call  for  20,000  3-inch  guns;  and  the 
equipment  with  howitzers  and  machine- 
guns,  to  say  nothing  of  rifles  and  ammuni 
tion  of  all  kinds,  would  be  on  the  same 
scale. 

"  Where  are  we  going  to  obtain  all  this 
materiel?  Practically  all  the  arsenals, 
depots,  gunshops,  rifle  factories,  and  pow 
der  works  of  the  United  States  lie  in  that 
part  of  the  country  which  is  held  by  the 
enemy. 

"So  the  question  of  how  long  it  would 


202  AMERICA  FALLEN 

take  us  to  drive  out  the  Germans  is  one  not 
of  patriotism  but  of  mechanics.  If  I  could 
tell  you,  offhand,  Mr.  President,  how  long 
it  would  take  to  build,  equip,  and  man  the 
factories  necessary  to  manufacture  the 
rifles,  field-guns,  powder,  uniforms,  and 
tentage  for  an  army  of  one  million,  or  two, 
three,  or  four  million  men,  as  the  case 
might  be,  I  could  tell  you  how  long 
it  would  be  before  we  were  ready 
to  drive  the  enemy  from  our  lost  terri 
tory. 

"  At  a  rough  guess,  I  should  say  that  it 
would  be  not  less  than  two  and  a  half 
years,  and  if  he  developed  his  full  military 
strength,  it  might  be  five  or  six." 

The  Chief  of  Staff  paused,  swept  his 
glance  over  the  Cabinet,  and  resumed: 

"  If  I  may  be  allowed  to  state  what 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  wise  course,  the  truly 
patriotic  course,  in  this  crisis " 

"  Certainly,"  said  the  President. 


THE  CAPTURE  OF  PITTSBURG    203 

"  I  would  suggest  that  the  Government 
pay  this  indemnity,  and  write  it  off  on  the 
National  Ledger  as  the  cost  of  being 
taught  the  great  national  duty  of  military 
preparedness." 


THE    END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


JUL31  1968  4  8 


REC'D  LD     JUlp 


JAN  23  196 

9  a  a 



RECEIVED 

,fn  . 

,n  rerfiUjflLr          JUL  2  3  ?0   9    7 


-3PM  1  A 


LD   OCTp 


4 


LD  21A-60m-2  '67 
(H241slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


